Warren Tribune Chronicle publishes ''firearms shopping list'' again

The assault by a few media outlets in Ohio on thousands of concealed handgun license-holders who have broken no laws, violated no other persons' rights, and who simply wish to exercise their constitutional right to self-defense continues:

An OFCC supporter has alerted this organization that Trumbull County's Warren Tribune Chronicle has once again abused the media access loophole and published the names of CHL-holders. According to another supporter, the newspaper has published lists of CHL-holders in Trumbull, Mahoning, and Summit Counties on an almost weekly basis since last July. The newspaper does NOT print hunting licenses or building permits. Nor do they print the names of those receiving newly-issued drivers' licenses (a group that truly IS a danger to society).

The Warren Tribune Chronicle was one of the first of now seven Ohio newspapers to have published the names of concealed handgun license-holders as though they were social pariah. For this act, the paper was awarded the "Bandemonium Award" in the July 2004 issue of the NRA's national First Freedom magazine.

The Tribune Chronicle has editorialized that there is no anti-Second Amendment motivation behind it being one of only seven Ohio newspapers to publish the names of concealed handgun license-holders. Readers are asked to believe that this abuse of the media access loophole is done "for the public good." Let us test that logic.

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

Since thousands more people die from automobile accidents each year than from firearms, and since these accidents are frequently caused by the youngest or oldest drivers, should it not also be considered a "public good" to publish the lists of all new drivers who obtain licenses, or all persons past retirement age who renew?

That the Tribune Chronicle has not ever pasted a scarlet letter on drivers by listing them in the newspaper, as papers rightly have sex offenders, is telling. Though the number of people murdered by the nation's millions and millions of CHL-holders is statistically zero, the Tribune-Chronicle has chosen to list these people as though they are social pariah, because that clearly is how the editors view them.

The editors "feel this information should be available to everyone, not just the media," and they have a right to its belief that these records should be open.

However, the Ohio General Assembly disagrees, and the sponsors of this legislation have called actions like the Tribune's "abusive". This abuse is already being used as impetus for removing what legislators have referred to as a "privilege", just as it has been removed in other states when media elites overstepped their intended role as public overseer.

For many years, Ohio's defenseless citizens have petitioned for change, while suffering under an unfair law which infringed on their right to self-defense.

Instead of abusing the law we now have, the Tribune Chronicle and others should do what self-defense advocates did - work tirelessly and at great personal expense to change the law.

Instead, the Tribune Chronicle continues to take the lazy, inconsiderate, abusive and dangerous road by irresponsibly choosing to ignore a law which it doesn't like.

Shame on them.

Rep. James Aslanides (R-Coshocton), the concealed carry bill's original sponsor, said in conference committee and during a short floor speech last January that he would lead an effort to roll back the media access if the "privilege" is abused.

"If they abuse the privilege, we can cause them to lose the privilege," he declared, pointing out that the Pennsylvania Legislature struck a similar provision after a newspaper published a list of permit holders.

Aslanides can be reached at:
Telephone: (614) 644-6014
Fax: (614) 644-9494
Email Address: [email protected]

Sen. Steve Austria seconded this warning, adding that publishing the names of license-holders would be the exact kind of abuse they're referring to, since publishing these names would threaten the safety of the very men and women who have chosen to bear arms for self-defense.

Austria can be reached at:
Telephone: 614-466-3780
[email protected]

"I don't think we need to worry about journalists doing their job," state Sen. Marc Dann, a Youngstown area Democrat, told Mr. Aslanides.

Dann can be reached at:
Telephone: 614-466-7182
[email protected]

Rep. Aslanides has already expressed interest in modifying the law to correct this abuse. Sens. Austria and Dann have not, as far as we are aware, provided public comment in the wake of these newspapers' actions. All three men were reelected last month.

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