Cleveland Plain Dealer and New York Times have a lot common

On June 20, the editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Doug Clifton, wrote and published a column that contained about as much truth as we now know was contained in articles by New York Times reporter Jayson Blair.

Clifton told Plain Dealer readers that HB12 "exempts all gun licensing information from the state's open records laws" and that "the state wants to...prevent you from knowing ...a single thing about any part of this potentially lethal power."

Click on the "Read More..." link below for more.

It is true that the identities of those who apply for and are granted, denied or revoked, concealed-carry licenses would not be public information under HB12. The protection of privacy for persons who wish to exercise their constitutional right to self-defense is important for many reasons,
not the least of which is to prevent the creation of a de facto gun
registration database.

But Mr. Clifton is just plan wrong when he says the bill "exempts all gun licensing information from the state's open records laws" and that "the state wants to...prevent you from knowing ...a single thing about any part of this potentially lethal power."

Sec. 109.731. (D) states that "...Not later than the first day of March in each year, the commission shall submit a statistical report to the governor, the president of the senate, and the speaker of the house of representatives indicating the number of those licenses that were issued, renewed,
suspended, revoked, and denied in the previous calendar year and the number
of applications for those licenses for which processing was suspended...in the previous calendar year. ...The statistics and the statistical report are public records for the purpose of section 149.43 of the Revised Code."

Other states have been providing similar statistics about their concealed carry laws for years. In nearly all states, less than 1% of licenses have to be revolked (and the vast majority of those are for reasons completely unrelated to misuse of a firearm). The overwhelming evidence shows that law-abiding citizens can be trusted with carrying firearms for self-defense.

Mr. Clifton closed by stating that "Allowing people to carry concealed weapons may be as wonderful as its backers believe or as dangerous as its opponents predict. Either way, with the secrecy provision in place, we won't be able to tell." How can we take Mr. Clifton or the Plain Dealer for any more than another New York Times when they print comments like these in the face of the facts?

Click here to read the entire column in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.