Plain Dealer op-ed analyses BFA PAC 2014 grades and endorsements

The Cleveland Plain Dealer recently published an op-ed from the newspaper's former editorial director, Brent Larkin, which focused entirely on Buckeye Firearms Association PAC's 2014 candidate grades and endorsements.

The op-ed, entitled "Ohio's gun-lobby report card is all about ownership -- of state lawmakers", beings with this:

Report cards are out. Students have learned their lessons well.

As always, there are a few laggards. Some never get it.

But most are easily trained and don’t make trouble. Most importantly, they always do what they’re told, which conserves brain cells for thinking about other matters.

Ohioans may not be proud of their General Assembly, but the Buckeye Firearms Association sure is.

And when it comes to pleasing either the people they represent or Ohio’s most powerful gun lobby, many legislators will choose the later.

Every single time.

The whining goes on and on. Larkin never mentions money, and that's because our power isn't about money. While Michael Bloomberg spent $50 million on Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, and millions more every time he swoops in on different local races, our power is the People - and that's not "ownership," it's representation.

Last year, the Plain Dealer announced that it would only print newspapers four days a week. and while he retired as the paper's former editorial director in 2009, Larkin has not been relevant to Ohio gun rights for 10+ years. Larkin chose to quote similarly retired, and similarly irrelevant, gun ban extremist Toby Hoover. Hopefully they can mutually assuage each other's bitterness.

Buckeye Firearms Association wishes them both a continued healthy, if irrelevant, retirement.

Chad D. Baus is the Buckeye Firearms Association Secretary, BFA PAC Vice Chairman, and an NRA-certified firearms instructor. He is the editor of BuckeyeFirearms.org, which received the Outdoor Writers of Ohio 2013 Supporting Member Award for Best Website. Ken Hanson is the Buckeye Firearms Association Legislative Chair and the winner of the 2008 NRA-ILA Defender of Justice Award.