''No-guns" shopping center heiress wants to go to Washington

26-year-old shopping center heiress Capri Cafaro wants to be the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports she is planning to spend a million dollars between now and Election Day broadcasting her image and her message on TV.

"Her quest to oust five-term Rep. Steve LaTourette is ambitious," writes PD reporter Steve Luttner, "but her ample checkbook has forced the veteran Republican congressman to wage his first serious campaign in years."

Luttner's article continues - "She doesn't apologize for her substantial wealth, which comes courtesy of her family's Youngstown-based Cafaro Co. builder of shopping centers. She said she has never held a paying job other than those given to her by her family. Rock star Jason Bonham performed at her 21st birthday party."

While the OFCC PAC does not make endorsements in races for national offices, Ms. Cafaro's campaign should draw the attention of every law-abiding, self-defense supporter in northeast Ohio.

Why?

Because Capri Cafaro is emulating John Kerry in trying to pretend she is pro-gun, because Cafaro's campaign funding comes from her family's shopping center empire, and because those shopping centers were all posted with "no-guns" signs following passage of Ohio's new concealed carry law.

From the Plain Dealer article: "Cafaro...supports Second Amendment gun-ownership rights. 'It didn't prove effective,' Cafaro said of the federal assault-weapons ban that recently expired. 'Concealed carry [of guns] has been effective in reducing crime in the states that it has been in.'"

Yet when a customer of one of her family's malls wrote to complain about the discriminatory signs, Cafaro responded in an April 15 email (provided by the recipient of the email to OFCC) as follows:

"You are not the first to express this sentiment regarding my family's properties and the CCW ban.

I, unfortunately, have no authority over what they do or what policies they set.

While I am not and have never been involved in my family's commercial real estate business, I believe they, along with all property owners, have reserved the right to determine who and what goes on within the boundries [sic] of their private property. It is possible that many public places, such as bars and restaurants, will follow suit, due to liability purposes."

If Cafaro was at all familiar with Ohio's new concealed carry law, she would know that the Ohio General Assembly inserted an immunity clause for businesses, protecting them whether or not they choose to post these discriminatory signs.

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"This much is clear. Capri is quite willing to spend the money these 'no-guns' shopping malls bring in," observed Chad Baus, Vice Chairman of the Ohioans For Concealed Carry PAC. "But when it comes to taking responsibility for how gun owners are discriminated against and rendered helpless when they go there, she claims she has no involvement with the malls. Like John Kerry, she is trying to have it both ways with gun owners."

"According to supporters who have contacted OFCC, customers can't even drive to the mall and leave their firearms in their car if they chose, because the ban is effective in parking lots," Baus continues. "By prohibiting firearms in its parking lots, the Cafaro Co. has not only made their customers and employees more susceptible to violence while at the mall, but has effectively disarmed them while driving to and from."

Rep. LaTourette was quoted by the Plain Dealer as saying recently that he is "unnerved" by Cafaro's ability to write herself huge campaign checks.

"I'm concerned she could buy the race. She's only 26 years old, she's beating the crap out of my experience...". "I think people deserve to know what she thinks about things, not just how she looks on television."

On that, concealed handgun license-holders who are disarmed at Cafaro-owned shopping malls couldn't agree with you more, Rep. LaTourette.

Click here to send a message to Capri Cafaro.