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I Count Too! (325 words)

In today’s world many of us feel that our voices just aren’t heard. The Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence is gathering support across Ohio for those who think their concern for a safe environment for our families is not being heard in our legislature.

In April 2004, the Ohio legislature passed a concealed carry law allowing gun owners to carry loaded, hidden guns in public, even though over 70% of Ohioans and the Ohio Association of Police Chiefs were opposed.

The gun lobby promises to continue their control of our legislators. In 2006, they passed legislation to preempt local firearm laws and remove even more restrictions in the concealed carry law.

Gun-lobby-supported laws to promote more guns and less regulation:

• Allow people to easily carry loaded guns in more public places
• Preempt more than 80 city ordinances regulating firearms
• Hide the identities of those with permits to carry guns in public

The gun lobby also promotes bills to:

• Have schools teach children about guns (NRA taught with your taxpayer money!)
• Legally remove the ‘responsibility to retreat’ to allow people to shoot when they feel threatened. This is a license to murder.

Let’s ensure our laws protect all citizens, not just promote the gun lobby’s reckless agenda. You have the right to enjoy life without fear of whether or not the person next to you at the checkout line is carrying a loaded handgun and might ‘feel threatened’.

Take the ‘I Count Too’ pledge below.

I pledge that I will:

• Not keep silent but work toward a culture of non-violence
• Stand against the gun lobby’s dangerous agenda for Ohioans
• Work toward a safer world for me and generations to come
• Join the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence today  

Sign the ‘I Count Too’ pledge at www.ohioceasefire.org.

Smoking is no longer the social norm, and guns can follow suit when you count too!

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