Bias in the Media for Concealed Carry Reform

Thanks to what Ohio legislators are saying was an unprecedented grassroots movement, HB347 survived the Governor's veto. If you don't remember what HB347 does and why it is important, go here.

Thousands of people flooded their representatives and Governor with phone calls and emails. Taft's office was especially not happy with us. I've heard we basically shut down his office for a few days thanks to our organized efforts.

I'll try not to give you the whole play-by-play, but here it is in a nutshell: After originally passing overwhelmingly in the House and Senate, the Act became "lost" for a few days before it made its way to Taft's desk. This is because once the Governor officially receives it, he has ten days to make a decision. Someone was stalling. No one could tell us who. The House Speaker, the Senate President, and the Governor's staff could not answer simple questions like, "Where is it? What is the process for getting it to Taft?" They told different people different things and stalled for a few days. That really pissed me off. Most Acts get to the Governor within a couple hours for his decision. This was certainly fishy.

Anyway, Taft finally "found" it and vetoed. Ohio requires a three/fifths majority vote for an override. We needed 60 votes in the House and got 71. We needed 20 in the Senate and knew that those would be more difficult. Thanks to bi-partisan support, we got 21.

Every single media outlet said that this bill should not have become law. Seriously. The only support that I saw came in the form of Letters to the Editor. Not surprisingly, every single newspaper is now bitching that the process works and this will become law in ninety days. The original legislation passed with overwhelming numbers out of a Senate committee, the Senate floor, and the House floor all in the same afternoon! That doesn't happen very often. Then, Taft's veto was overridden with the large, bi-partisan majority that was needed. Veto overrides are so hard to do that the last one occurred in Ohio in 1977.

So despite all of that and legislators going on record saying they have never heard from so many constituents about any other piece of legislation, every single media outlet is now continuing to show their true colors by rehasing the whining of anti-gunners and barely mentioning why these laws are so important and necessary...

From The Columbus Dispatch:

Even though most Ohioans consider it a bad idea, the Ohio Senate yesterday joined the House in overriding Gov. Bob Taft’s veto of a concealed-carry law that effectively wipes out Columbus’ assault weapons ban and about 80 other local gun laws.

From The Cincinnati Enquirer:

Mayor Mark Mallory, a state legislator for 10 years, said he is discouraged by the Ohio General Assembly's vote against home rule.

Cincinnati's ban on assault weapons was reinstated Friday by the Ohio Supreme Court after more than two years of court appeals. The local ban will be unenforceable, again, March 13, meaning that residents can own military-style, semiautomatic weapons with magazines that hold dozens of bullets.

"We had a court ruling which upheld the concept that the city of Cincinnati was . . . well within its rights" to enforce an assault weapons ban, Mallory said. "The legislature set that ruling on its ear ... or all of the legislative talk about local control, we continue to see examples of the legislature saying, 'No, we can't decide this at the local level.' It's very disappointing."

Even our beloved Times-Reporter:

Ohioans backed Gov. Bob Taft, but lawmakers didn't. The Ohio Senate completed an override of his veto of legislation that will wipe out local gun bans.

Unfortunately, finding balanced reporting is all but impossible when the issue is firearms. They keep discussing the necessity of Ohio's Home Rule Amendment. I wish that these folks actually read the Amendment they keep trying to hide behind. It does not apply to "matters of statewide concern." (That is a direct quote). Hmmm, I wonder if statewide laws that affect me and my state-issued Concealed Handgun License fall into that category.