Violence around ''gun-free'' Head Start safety zone threatens center

The Cincinnati Post is reporting that Cincinnati officials are "reacting quickly" to help operators of a Head Start center in Over-the-Rhine improve safety after a teacher had a gun pointed at her head Tuesday afternoon in a robbery at a store across the street. Less than 10 minutes later, another Head Start staff member was mugged near the center.

The stories say the incidents are the latest in a series of escalating crimes that have prompted staff to put the center on lockdown and prohibit the 108 children served by the Green Street facility from playing outdoors to avoid being shot.

Notably, the article states that the city's long-term strategy includes working with the development corporation -- known as 3CDC -- to dramatically increase lighting along several streets in Over-the-Rhine, and that among the 3CDC members is Joseph A. Pichler, chairman of the Kroger Co., which is headquartered a few blocks from the Head Start site.

Perhaps Pichler can advise city officials that the failed social experiment called gun control should not be among their choices, and share his company's brief experience of how posting "no-guns" signs did nothing but turn his stores into victim zones. Kroger removed discriminatory signs banning CHL-holders soon after the violent robbery of a 70-year old Kroger customer outside a posted store on May 23, 2004, and in the wake of a huge grassroots uprising.