by Chad D. Baus

The Columbus Dispatch reported recently that Governor-elect John Kasich has appointed Maj. John Born to serve as the next superintendent of the Ohio State Highway Patrol (OSHP).

The name John Born is quite familiar to pro-gun rights activists who were in the Buckeye State for the fight to pass a shall-issue concealed carry law, and his appointment to the top post in the bureaucracy of the OSHP is likely to provoke fears of dark days ahead for pro-gun legislation.

John Born also served in Bob Taft's OSHP hierarchy, and was the OSHP's spokesperson during their days of opposition to CCW reform.

Taft hid behind the OSHP, claiming to be a supporter of concealed carry reform, but saying he'd only support a bill that had OSHP backing.

What kind of a bill was the OSHP comfortable with at the time? Consider that then-Capt. John Born was the mouthpiece of an effort to make CCW in a car completely illegal. Efforts by the OSHP to insert a poison pill amendment containing that language are what led to the defeat of a concealed carry bill (HB274) in 2002.

Born and the OSHP continued their insistence that concealed carry be illegal in a motor vehicle when concealed carry legislation was reintroduced in 2003. On February 13, 2003, Born was quoted as saying "We do not want a loaded firearm readily accessible to the driver of a car. If there's a dangerous situation and you're in your car, you can drive off."

Pro-CCW activists actually started keeping a victim count of all the people who tried to follow his ridiculous advice - and coined a term for what often happened to people who tried to just "drive off" when attacked. We called it "getting Borned."

Ohio's popular muzzleloader deer season is set to open statewide January 8-11 according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife. Last year, hunters checked 24,078 white-tailed deer during the statewide hunt.

A total of 210,361 deer have been harvested so far this season when combining the adult and youth gun seasons, early muzzleloader season, gun weekend, and the first nine weeks of the archery season. That compares to a total of 227,748 killed last year during the same time period. Hunters took a total of 261,314 deer during all of last year's hunting seasons.

Prior to the start of the hunting season, Ohio's deer population was estimated at 750,000. The Division of Wildlife expects as many as 210,000 hunters will hunt deer during the muzzleloader season.

Ohio deer hunters must possess the proper permits. Regardless of zone, method of taking or season, hunters may take only one antlered deer during the 2010-2011 deer hunting season.

Legal hunting hours during the statewide muzzleloader deer season are one-half hour before sunrise to sunset. Deer must be checked by 8 p.m.on the day after harvest, except those killed on January 11, which must be brought to a deer check station by 8 p.m.that day.

by Chad D. Baus

Despite a Sportsmen for Strickland effort that pushed Ted Strickland over the top in the 2006 election for Governor, and another Sportsmen for Strickland effort in 2010 that attracted disenfranchised Republican gun owners and nearly boosted him over John Kasich in a year that should have given the GOP an easy win, and despite having earned "A"-ratings and endorsements from the National Rifle Association and Buckeye Firearms Association, as well as an endorsement from Ohioans For Concealed Carry, out-going Governor Ted Strickland's lasting legacy to Ohio's gun owners is that of an anti-gun appointment to the Ohio Supreme Court (OSC). (Actually, make that two anti-gun appointments - Strickland's appointment of Eric Brown to serve out the late Chief Justice Thomas Moyer's term last April also turned out to be anti-gun - just yesterday Brown decided with the minority in a 5-2 decision upholding the constitutionality of Ohio's preemption law. Fortunately, Brown did not win reelection in November.)

The Ohio Supreme Court has, in a 5-2 opinion, once again ruled that Ohio's "preemption" law is valid. In a case brought by the City of Cleveland against the State of Ohio, the court held that R.C. 9.68 is valid in all respects, including, but not limited to, the mandatory attorney fee provision against any city that attempts to violate a citizen's right to self-defense.

HB347, the preemption law, became effective in March of 2007. It replaces a patchwork of varied and confusing local rules with "uniform laws throughout the state regulating the ownership, possession, purchase, other acquisition, transport, storage, carrying, sale, or other transfer of firearms, their components, and their ammunition."

The legislature recognized that, like motor vehicle laws, it makes sense for firearms laws to be uniform throughout the state. Because local laws can only carry misdemeanor penalties, and almost every crime committed with a gun is a felony under state or federal law, the local laws were almost never used to charge criminals and instead served to disarm the crime victims.

by Ken Hanson

The Christmas season is usually a time of joy and happiness for families. A time to take a short break from work, spend quality time with extended family and "pay forward" the magical experience of Santa to the young children in your lives.

Just as sure as joyous, lasting memories being created, there is bound to be unfathomable tragedy in the lives of a few families, in a season that was expected to bring nothing but joy. Personally, I buried my father on December 23, 1995, so I know what it can be like to turn the season upside down.

This tragedy from Scioto County is simply too sad to retell. I cannot imagine the burden that this family has been asked to shoulder, and if it is within your means, I am certain that a donation to the benefit fund set up for the family will be well used.

Closer to my personal home is the occurrence of a fatal carjacking that occurred Sunday night.

Reading the story, my initial shock and sorrow slowly gave way to a boiling rage. All of the explanations I have heard from students, all of the excuses from citizens, all the lame editorials over the past eight years...they recycle and recycle through my head.

by Jeff Knox

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) has a long history of excess and overreaching and they're at it again. Using exaggerated reports of gun smuggling from the US into Mexico as their justification, the agency has filed for an Emergency Regulation requiring gun dealers to keep track of their customers and file special reports to ATF whenever a customer purchases more than one semi-automatic rifle within any 5-day period. Such special reporting is already required for multiple sales of handguns and has proven to be thoroughly useless as a law enforcement tool.

ATF's requested regulation – which is unconstitutional, violates a statutory prohibition against firearms registration schemes, and was obviously filed as an "Emergency" simply as a means of bypassing Congress – would be "temporary," meaning that it would have to be renewed in 4 or 5 months, and is said to only apply to gun dealers in states bordering Mexico, though the regulation, as submitted, seems to be missing that specific limitation.

At this point the proposed regulation is awaiting approval from the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA.) Political observers will recall that OIRA is headed by President Obama's old friend Cass Sunstein who famously advocated for the abolition of all hunting and for the extension of legal rights – including the right to have a court-appointed attorney – to animals. While Mr. Sunstein is an attorney and college professor specializing, in part, in constitutional law, his record shows that his Constitution does not include the Second Amendment. It is expected that Sunstein's office will approve ATF's Emergency Regulation by the first week of January unless there is immediate and vehement objection from members of Congress and the public.

In response to The Dayton Daily News' recent editorial excoriating attempts to pass SB239 (Restaurant & Car Carry Rules Fix), two letter writers, including BFA Region Leader Larry Moore, wrote to set the facts straight.

Hunters killed 21,064 deer on December 18-19, during the weekend of gun hunting, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Wildlife.

The extra weekend of gun hunting was first offered in 2006 in response to hunters' request for additional weekend days to pursue white-tailed deer, the state's number one big game animal. In 2009, hunters took 19,900 deer during those two days.

Counties leading the state in deer killed over the weekend included: Tuscarawas – 1,091; Harrison – 786; Licking – 767; Guernsey – 626; Coshocton – 622; Holmes – 589; Ashland – 585; Ashtabula – 580; Washington - 538; and Belmont – 493.

A total of 210,361 deer have been harvested so far this season when combining the adult and youth gun seasons, early muzzleloader season and the first nine weeks of the archery season. That compares to a total of 227,748 killed last year during the same period. Hunters took a total of 261,314 deer during all of last year's hunting seasons.

by Jim Irvine

Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray (D) has released the concealed handgun license (CHL) statistics for the third quarter of 2010. During the quarter ending September 2010, Ohio surpassed 200,000 outstanding concealed handgun licenses. The quarter ended with a record of approximately 208,350 Ohio residents licensed to carry concealed firearms. (See chart)

We are in our seventh year of concealed carry in Ohio and it is clear that the program is popular, successful and growing. Ohio's law became effective in April of 2004. The third quarter is generally the slowest quarter of the year, and 2010 is no exception. While the numbers are lower than the surge following the election of President Obama, they are still well ahead of prior year's numbers and more than double the third quarter in years 2005, 2006 and 2007.

There were 2,763 CHL's renewed and 18 temporary emergency licenses (TEL's) issued during the quarter. Combined with 9,775 regular licenses, that brings the total to 12,287 licenses issued during the quarter, or an average of almost 200 licenses issued every work day by Ohio sheriffs. That equates to over five licenses being issued per hour, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day.

Merry Christmas to one and all from all of us at Buckeye Firearms Association.

Our best gift is the friendship and support given by each of you throughout the year.

As we reflect on the year's passing, we count our many blessings, remember our losses, and give thanks for those who helped us through it all.

We each need to take time to appreciate our friends and family during this special time of year. They are the reason we work so hard to make our world a better place to live.

From all of us to all of you – enjoy a great holiday season. Here's hoping Santa brings each of you your very own "official Red Ryder carbine action two-hundred shot range model air rifle with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time" (or the firearm of YOUR heart's desire).

Editorial: 'Is there no end to the irrational prejudice against Red Ryder and his peacemaker?'