Guns save lives, and are necessary for protection. That's according to research from David Burnett and Clayton Cramer, who track incidents of defensive gun use at TheArmedCitizen.com.

The stories include senior citizens fighting off robbers, and women defending themselves against rapists or attackers, proving armed citizens prevent violent crimes everywhere from restaurants and grocery stores to banks, coffee houses and pizza parlors.

"We've documented 2,160 stories of self-defense with guns since May 2007 – the same time frame the VPC used," said Burnett. "When it comes to concealed carry permits, we have 153 documented cases across 26 states with at least 550 lives saved."

The Violence Policy Center (VPC) recently claimed concealed weapons licensees are killers, offering stories as proof. Burnett says the VPC is distorting the truth.

"If these victims had been disarmed, they wouldn't be able to fight back...they'd be dead," said Burnett. "Since no place is immune from crime, we must allow people to be armed for their own protection. Nobody wants to kill someone, but nobody wants to die either."

Burnett also notes that in 14 percent of documented cases, no shots were fired. "You don't always have to shoot to stop a criminal. Sometimes the threat is enough."

by Ken Hanson, Esq.

In a May 30, 2010 column, Cleveland Plain Dealer editorial board member and columnist Thomas Suddes says, "Just hand Ohio to the gun nuts and get it over with." While I would like to oblige him, despite his pejorative labeling of me as a "nut," the political realities reduce me instead to responding to his op-ed.

Mr. Suddes is presenting to us a severe case of denial. Denial is a coping mechanism employed by individuals to avoid dealing with painful realities, and Suddes is owning it. Ensconced within the Ivory Towers of Ohio University's E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, Suddes has peered out his window at the hoi polloi in the Ohio Senate and clucked his tongue over passage of Senate Bills 239 and 247.

HOW DARE THEY?