Ohio media: Two gun stories, one surprise

Ohio Media Gun Story #1

On April 8, 2004, Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman staged a press conference next to a jungle gym, lamenting the fact that the city was unable to protect children by posting signs banning concealed handgun license-holders. Coleman called Ohio's concealed carry law "a travesty for our city and for our state."

On Monday, the Columbus Dispatch reported on how police have been unable to come up with an explanation for a weekend of violence that ended with five people shot, two fatally, within five hours on Saturday.

Possible explanations: drug and gang activity; a youth culture more prone to gunplay; heat inducing more tempers to flare; and concentrated poverty in the area.

What deserves to be noted (the anti-gun Dispatch fails to do so) is what is NOT being noted among the potential causes: concealed carry laws, which recognize the self-defense rights of law-abiding citizens.

Ohio Media Gun Story #2, with a surprise

In a move that is sure to draw even more attention to the inexplicable failure of Ohio Senate President Bill Harris to move HB347, the Cleveland Plain Dealer has issued an endorsement of one of the central aspects of the legisation: statewide preemption of gun laws.

This page continues to look skeptically on concealed carry, but consistency in the form of statewide, uniform standards makes more sense than a confusing patchwork of local contradictions.

HB347 passed the Ohio House with a large bi-partisan majority. It has had very little opposition from from persons testifying in Senate hearings, or Ohio's establishment media. The legislation now has the support of one of the most anti-gun editorial boards in the state.

President Harris has promised action on HB347 before year-end. The question this election season remains: Why not now, Mr. Harris?