Pro-Gun Punditry: Wednesday's Buckeye State Roundabout

There are more stories pertaining to our gun rights in Ohio then we can possibly draw attention to with individual daily commentary. But they are worthy of comment.

What follows is our weekly view of headlines from around the state though a pro-gun rights lens.

Click on the "Read More..." link below for seven days of headlines accompanied by short, concise pro-gun analysis.

Wednesday from Columbus: Democrats’ state leader considers resigning

Rep. Ted Strickland, who is seeking the Ohio governor’s mansion, urged Rep. Sherrod Brown to run for the Senate shortly before Brown announced earlier this month that he would do so. Brown is vying for the Democratic nomination to challenge Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) next year. The hope, voiced by Strickland and other Democrats, is that Brown, from northeastern Ohio, and Strickland, from the southeast, would jointly mobilize an array of urban liberals and rural, conservative Democrats across the state. “I do believe that Sherrod and I can have complementary campaigns,” Strickland said in an interview yesterday. Strickland called Brown one of the “brightest minds” in the Democratic Party and a longtime friend. Strickland said he last spoke with Brown about the Senate race a week and a half before Brown made his announcement, on Oct. 5. But he added that, over the years, he had discussed a Senate bid with Brown many times. Democrats in Ohio were surprised that Brown entered the race because the congressman had earlier indicated he was unlikely to run, said Brian Rothenberg, communications director for the Ohio Democratic Party.
Among those caught off-guard was Paul Hackett (D), the Iraq war veteran who had formally announced his own Senate bid two days earlier. Hackett’s campaign manager, David Woodruff, said Hackett entered the race with the expectation that he would not face a primary. Woodruff noted that leading Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) and Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.), chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), had urged Hackett to run. “Their wives called Mrs. Hackett,” Woodruff said. Hackett, like Strickland, comes from southern Ohio. Also like Strickland, Hackett, as a vocal supporter of gun rights, is on his party’s conservative flank and, presumably, would have a tough time galvanizing more liberal voters in a general election.

Pro-gun Strickland encourages anti-gun Brown to enter race against pro-gun Hackett... Is it any wonder why Democrats are so down on Voting Freedom First?

Thursday from Toledo: Riot's violence haunts victims; 'They want to kill me,' employee thought as shop was looted

Weeks before her baby is due, Surinder Kaur found herself locked in the restroom of her brother's North Toledo convenience store with another employee Saturday, fearing for her life as rioters looted the business. Ms. Kaur, who is eight months pregnant with her first child, already had been hit in the left shoulder with rocks and shoved against a wall. During the melee, her car outside the American Petroleum store was overturned. "I'll never forget Saturday," the 24-year-old woman said yesterday as she sat quietly on a mattress on her living room floor. Ms. Kaur said she doesn't think she'll work at the store if it reopens. "I'm scared," she said.

Businesses that chose to disarm their employees deserve to be held accountable when they cannot protection their employees, and should be stripped of the liability protection they currently enjoy under Ohio law.

Saturday from Columbus: Open season for OSU; Pistols, rifles ready

The Ohio State Pistol team captured the 7th Annual Buckeye Invitational, winning both the open and women's title. The Buckeyes posted an open team score of 6,237 with the U.S. Military Academy finishing second at 6,203 and Missouri State, third at 5,591. OSU won the women's title with a 2,673 score. The U.S. Military Academy was second at 2,630 with Missouri State third at 2,185. OSU's Teresa Meyer (So., Dearborn, Mich.) won the women's two-gun aggregate title with a 936 mark. She won both the women's sport (564) and women's air (372) events. In the open three-gun aggregate, Max Pappas won the individual title for the U.S. Military Academy with a 1,604. Pappas captured the open standard title with a 549 score, finished second in open free at 508 and was third in open air at 547. Meyer finished second at 1,590. She took first in open air with a 560 score, third in open free at 495 and fourth in open standard at 535. His teammate Jameson Boscow won the open free title with a 517. Ohio State will next compete at the Texas A&M meet, Nov. 18-19.

Go Bucks.

Sunday from Cleveland: Gunmen kill Brook Park man while robbing bar

A Brook Park man was fatally shot Saturday by one of four robbers who raided the Peanut Bar on Denison Avenue near West 84th Street in Cleveland, police said. The men were wearing "Scream" masks, hooded sweatshirts and gloves. As the men stormed the bar at 12:45 a.m., one fired a shotgun, killing Daniel Carare, 39, and wounding Brenda Dombrowski, 47, of Garfield Heights. Dombrowski was recovering from a shoulder wound at MetroHealth Medical Center on Saturday. Patrons were forced to hand over their purses and wallets. One robber vaulted the bar, held a handgun to a barmaid's head and emptied the cash register. Another struck David Cooper, 45, of Denison Avenue, on the back of his head, Sgt. Dan Galmarini said.

More defenseless people killed by guns in places where guns are banned...

Sunday from Cincinnati: Four UC Students Robbed At Gunpoint, Police Say

Four University of Cincinnati students said they were robbed at gunpoint outside an apartment building near campus, News 5 reported. The four women told police they were in the parking lot of the Bellevue House on Ohio Avenue when they were approached by a man in his 20s. "He just came out of nowhere and he had a gun and he said, 'Give me your purses. Give me everything,'" said Amanda Amsel. "(One woman) tried to reach into her purse to grab her cell phone, and he said, 'Don't grab anything.' So we threw everything and he said, 'Drive off,' so we drove off." The women drove to a gas station on Calhoun Street and called police. The alleged robbery follows the carjacking of a Cincinnati State student near Clifton this week and the shooting of a woman outside her home on McAlpin Street in Clifton last week.

It is a travesty that persons who are of legal age to bear arms in defense of their country are prohibited from purchasing a handgun or obtaining an Ohio concealed handgun license until the age of 21, or from carrying a firearm for self-defense on campus even after they reach that age.

Tuesday from Dayton: Court dismisses case in melee

A Montgomery County Common Pleas judge on Monday dismissed charges against a 24-year-old man in the Feb. 15 melee at the Third and Main streets bus stop after finding that prosecutors failed to bring the case to trial in time. County Prosecutor Mathias H. Heck Jr. announced an indictment against Calvin Warren Johnson on April 6 and said it sent this message: "If you act like this, if you act like a punk, if you act like this defendant, to hang out and cause trouble, you will be arrested and will go to jail." Defense attorney William T. Daly raised the issue of speedy trial in a motion filed Aug. 22, a week before Johnson was to be tried. Judge G. Jack Davis, who first raised the issue with attorneys for both sides Aug. 18, agreed, finding prosecutors overshot the mark by two days. "I am reluctantly aware that my decision requires that the prosecution of the accused in this matter be terminated and that he be discharged with any further prosecution being barred," Davis wrote in his decision.

From banning concealed carry on Dayton RTA busses to dropping the ball in the aftermath of a "near-riot" that broke out, this city government is proving that you can only count on yourself for protection.