OOPS: Toby Hoover admits gun control not a priority for Ohioans

By Chad D. Baus

In 2003, toward the end of the nearly decade-long debate on whether or not Ohio should join the modern world and pass a concealed carry law, gun ban extremist Toby Hoover repeatedly asserted that "The majority of Ohioans oppose carrying concealed guns" and "The majority of Ohioans oppose secretly carrying hidden loaded guns in public."

After a mass shooting at a "no-guns" church in the "no-guns" state of Wisconsin in 2005, Hoover stated that "Sooner or later, people are going to say, 'Enough is enough'."

After Ohio's concealed carry law took effect (in spite of Hoover's efforts at stopping it via a lawsuit), she stated "The gun lobby knows that carrying hidden loaded handguns is not what Ohioans want."

"We were speaking for the majority and this is not what Ohioans wanted," Hoover cackled. "We had legislators who went in and catered to a few. And they gave them a privilege that now we — the rest of us — have all had to readjust and consider what our risks are with that. The adult population of Ohio does not think they have to be armed at all times."

Fast forward to 2006: Hoover is now inadvertantly admitting that something has changed in the past two years since concealed carry became law.

In a recent Associated Press story entitled "'God, guns, gays' may be a stretch for average voters", written by former Cleveland Plain Dealer reporter Julie Carr Smyth, attempts to make the case that gubernatorial candidates are placing too much focus on social issues (including gun rights), given the size of the constituent groups they appeal to.

Hoover, who is already on record fretting about the fact that both of Ohio's gubernatorial candidates, Democrat Ted Strickland and Republican Ken Blackwell are supportive of gun rights, chimed in, saying that all the posturing on "wedge issues" leaves many topics of greater importance to voters unaddressed:

"What I find fascinating is that our candidates seem to be competing for who's more gun-friendly, and that seems absurd when that's not up there in the concerns of the majority of people," she said. "They're more worried about educating their kids, getting decent health care and putting food on the table."

Oops! Did you catch that? One of the most vocal of the small number of opponents to concealed carry in Ohio has just admitted that after more than two years of concealed carry in Ohio, people are not taking her 2004 advice not "hire, socialize, or share public space with those who carry hidden guns". In fact, just as proponents of the legislation predicted, concealed carry is a non-issue with the vast majority of Ohioans - even ones that don't own guns, have CHLs, etc.

Toby Hoover is now on record admitting that the majority of Ohioans are not the gun ban extremists she always portrays them to be, and we won't let her, or legislators, forget it.