Phony Prayer Vigils: The Last Desperate Gasp of Unenlightened Scoundrels

By Gerard Valentino

Columbuslocalnews.com is reporting that Ohio's most rabidly anti-gun organization has begun staging prayer vigils to remind the community of the ravages of homicides and violent crime.

The Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence, led by Toby Hoover, has a long and sorry history of dancing in the blood of murder victims. Their tactic of staging prayer vigils reaches a new low, as it exploits the family members and friends of homicide victims for political gain. Trotting out the victim's family after a homicide is the lowest form of political propaganda, and preys on people when they are at their most vulnerable.

If Toby's group waited until the family left for the funeral and robbed the house, it would show the same lack of basic decency as displaying grieving widows and orphans as though they are part of a circus freak show.

Moral outrage over such a complete lack of human dignity is warranted. And our disgust shouldn't only be directed at Toby Hoover's unthinkable act, because her propaganda is useless without the willing participation of the establishment news media.

The reporter covering the story for Columbuslocalnews.com, Kathleen Radcliff, failed at the most basic level in covering the story by failing to mention that Rabbi Michael Ungar, who will lead the prayer vigils in the Columbus area, served on the board of directors of The Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence. He did so as late as 2007, which is the last year that records are available to the public.

A quick background check on Rabbi Ungar would expose him as partisan and anti-gun. Yet, the so-called journalist portrayed him as an honest concerned clergyman without an ax to grind.

Mentioning that Rabbi Ungar is a devout gun grabber who leads an anti-gun organization would give less credence to the false belief that there is a groundswell of support for these vigils. Kathleen also failed to mention that the OCAGV actively lobbies for the end of private gun ownership, and is not a simple non-profit organization.

Admitting that would let people in on the fact that the vigils in question are the creation of a group willing to turn human tragedy into political propaganda.

Make no mistake, Toby Hoover and the few followers she can conjure up are guilty of exploitation at a level that would make Joseph Goebbels and his Nazi brethren proud. In this case, however, it took the help of a journalist to fully perpetrate fraud on the people of Columbus, and Ohio.

Buckeye Firearms Association has previously documented how the anti-gun leadership in Ohio uses less than a handful of supporters to trick people into believing there is an actual anti-gun movement.

The truth is far from the mythical world created by Toby Hoover and the few reporters who are willing to trade their journalistic integrity to help push the anti-gun agenda. It is often pointed out by gun advocates that journalists will go to jail to defend their perception of the Constitutional right to free speech, and then will tarnish that right by openly pushing an anti-gun agenda in what is reported to be a non-biased setting. The hypocrisy of thinking only their chosen rights are worth defending knows no bounds, and the actions of the reporter in this case are further proof.

Even when the duplicity of Hoover and her media accomplice are exposed, there still aren't any winners, as we have families already torn apart by violence being exploited, a reporter throwing away her integrity, and an advocacy group using tragedy for political gain.

We can't forget that Michael Moore used the Columbine massacre to create his propaganda movie masterpiece Bowling for Columbine, and though he claimed to be dedicated to ending gun violence, he made millions upon millions of dollars in the process. In his case he not only exploited human tragedy, but made buckets of money in the process.

Clearly, using the suffering of others to play on people's emotions and push a political agenda is an accepted policy of our anti-gun adversaries.

Exploitation of tragedy, it seems, is the last resort of anti-freedom scoundrels.

Gerard Valentino is Buckeye Firearms Foundation Treasurer, and author of The Valentino Chronicles (paperback) now available in the Buckeye Firearms Store.