News from the weekend illustrates futility of gun control schemes

February 16, 6:11 AM
by Daniel White, Cleveland Gun Rights Examiner

There are a couple of interesting tidbits from the news this past weekend.

On Friday, a power outage new Cincinnati facilitated a burglary at Arcade Antiques & Guns where thieves stole $19,000 worth of firearms. This highlights, once again, that the bad guys don't get their guns through legal means and that one gun a month laws, closing nonexistant gun show "loopholes", fingerprinting, waiting periods, ballistic "fingerprinting", etc. don't stop them from obtaining guns. Similarly, police broke up a burglary ring in Parma Heights where crooks were allegedly targeting guns in homes.

Now, some will argue that if all guns were banned and gun shop weren't in business that this wouldn't happen. Of course, that's like trying to stop drunk driving accidents by banning cars. Not to mention the fact that drugs are illegal, yet criminals have easy access.

Take Antonil Whitaker, for example. He's currently wanted by the U.S. Marshals for armed robbery and home invasion. With an extensive criminal history, including drug trafficking, Whitaker could never pass a background check at a gun shop. He cannot acquire firearms legally, yet he still has them. Gun laws don't disarm the bad guys, just the good guys.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about my belief that gun safety training should be taught in schools.

Friday afternoon, an Elyria woman was walking with her kids when she came across what she thought was a toy gun. When she picked it up, it discharged. Fortunately, nobody was injured. Perhaps if she had received firearms safety training, she would have known to keep her finger off the trigger and would not have unintentionally fired the gun.

Also in Elyria, a fight erupted outside a bar Saturday night that ended with shots being fired. Too bad guns are banned in bars, or that wouldn't have happened. Oh wait, they are. Huh, it's almost as if laws have no effect on criminals.

Elyria was busy, because there was also an incident with shots fired in front of First Merit bank. First Merit prohibits guns, so it obviosly didn't have anything to do with bank transactions. Police found shell casings, which those in favor of "ballistic fingerprinting" will point to and say if we just enacted their insipid idea that police would be able to find the shooter. Except that this would only lead back to the last legal owner, not the person who stole the gun and subsequently sold it on the black market where it passed through any number of thugs.

Late Thursday night, an attempted car jacking in Akron resulted in the car owner being shot several times in the parking lot of Corky's Thomastown Cafe after he refused to give up his vehicle. Another woman died early Monday morning after an attack in a Columbus Wal-Mart parking lot.

These incidents illustrate why gun owners are so opposed to criminal protections zones. If a victim has a concealed handgun license and is forced to disarm by a business posting a "no guns" sign, that firearm would be unavailable to him or her if confronted to or from the business. Rendering people defenseless does not reduce crime and only leads to tragedy.

The NRA released a statement Friday that rumors of anti-gun provisions being hidden in the federal economic stimulus bill are false. That's good to know.

Once again, the protesters are out in opposition of deer culling, this time in the Cleveland Metroparks. They want non-lethal methods employed to control population levels, even though such methods have failed to be effective in trials. The other option is to let the herds grow unchecked, causing property damage and human deaths due to vehicular collisions. Personally, I'd rather trained and tested hunters were utilized threw a pay-to-enter lottery than professional hunters be employed. Note to the antis: deer are food, not friends.

In New Philadelphia, an enterprising individual used a fake bomb to rob a check cashing store Saturday. If only they had a "no bombs allowed" sign on the door, this wouldn't have happened...

http://www.examiner.com/x-2206-Cleve...ontrol-schemes