Cincinnati CityBeat cover story: ''Armed and Next To Us''

The last time we heard from Cincinnati CityBeat on the issue of concealed carry reform, it was in a race-baiting, anti-gun article by columnist Kathy F. Wilson, written just days after the first open carry Defense Walk in Cincinnati in 2003.

That article accompanied another inflammatory review of the history-making Defense Walk, in which author Gregory Flannery referred to walk participants as a "vigilante posse", "all of them white, all of them men" (a completely false claim, by the way), and which referred to how the daughter of one Walk participant was accused by a protestor of being a "potential future murderer".

Given this history, it may come as a surprise that Cincinnati CityBeat's April 6, 2005 cover story is one of the most interesting, objective, and sincere pieces of journalism on Ohio concealed carry to come from a mainstream media organization.

Written by Ben L. Kaufman, "Armed and Next To Us" takes CityBeat readers through the early days of litigation challenging Ohio's 150-year-old ban on concealed carry. Kaufman describes his own experience taking a concealed handgun class at Target World, and includes remarks on the typical class topics of firearms safety and mental preparedness. The story notes that fears of gun ban lobbyists haven't materialized, even as he includes a quote from anti-gun extremist Toby Hoover reiterating her "fears that legally concealed handguns could escalate a confrontation into a homicide, add to the culture of fear and do nothing to contribute to communities of nonviolence." Kaufman concludes with a review of some of the more difficult provisions in Ohio law, and notes problems they have caused for law-abiding citizens.

Three cheers for a journalist who truly understands that the public journal is a public trust, and for the newspaper that employs him.

Click here to read "Armed and Next To Us".

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