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| Panelists at Cleveland Heights Democratic Club program on gun control [L-R]: Jeffrey Bendix, Tom Schmida, Jeffrey Robertson, Susanna O'Neil and Jim Reese |
Last night I attended a panel discussion that was part of the
national conversation we are having about gun control and the Second Amendment.
I didn’t take any notes because I didn’t go expecting to write about the event.
So of course I was fascinated by much of what people said and wished that I had
worn my reporting hat. So this post is more impression than careful reporting. But I can
announce that the event was videotaped by the redoubtable Richard Stewart of
Digizoom Media and should be posted in the near future. I’ll let you know when.
The panel was good. Cleveland Hts. Police Chief Jeffrey Robertson;
the city’s acting city manager, Susanna Niermann O’Neil; businessman Jim Reese
of the Buckeye Firearms Association; former teachers’ union head Tom Schmida;
and local media person Jeffrey Bendix were thoughtful and well-spoken. Chief Robertson and Second
Amendment defender Jim Reese were the most interesting panelists from my
perspective, possibly because the other three seemed conventional gun
regulators.
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| Cleveland Hts. Police Chief Jeffrey Robertson |
I hadn’t met Reese until about an hour before the program. We had spoken over the phone concerning the invitation we had extended
Buckeye Firearms to send a representative. We met by pre-arrangement at Panini's on Coventry because I wanted to have an informal discussion with somebody whose experiences and world view likely ran quite counter to my own.
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| Retired air traffic controller Jim Reese of Vermilion OH represented Second Amendment defenders at panel discussion |
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| Club president and moderator Mike Gaynier |
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| State Senator Shirley Smith was an attentive listener |
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| There was no shortage of questions from the engaged crowd in attendance at last night's discussion on gun control |
But those life experiences! There was the woman who was
accosted on Lee Road in 1988 and shot in the neck with a .22 that resulted in
agonizing recuperation and partial paralysis. There was the family friend of teenager Penny Chang^, who was shot and killed in Shaker Heights by a mentally ill friend. And there was the minister whose congregation has recently attracted a
pistol-packing visitor whose Sunday morning presence has created concerns among fellow
worshipers not quite ready for their heavenly rewards.
And then there was the polymath physician who had a medicine
cabinet full of valid statistics and persuasive talking points that flowed like
water: about how 2/3 of gun deaths are from suicide, that we as a society are
asking the wrong questions in the gun control debate, that the mentally ill are
no more prone to commit murder than the rest of us, that the notion that guns
make their owner safer is easily shown to be a statistical myth; that the
incidence of mass murders — defined as more than four victims — has pretty much held
steady over the last 20 years or so [it’s the ubiquitous 24/7 news cycle that
has heightened awareness].
The zinger of the night, the observation that cut through
all the position taking, came when one questioner pointed out that the
professionals, the people with presumably the most situational training in
addition to superior firearms skills, had recently been performing like
OK Corralers on speed. This kind suburban Caucasian was of course referring to
Cleveland’s finest, the perpetrators of “the perfect chase” that led to the
137-bullet fusillade that ended the lives of two unarmed citizens and will
define the careers of at least twenty or so safety officials before all is said
and done.
As I said, I’ll let you know when the video is up.
Meanwhile, if you want video about police policy, deadly
force policy, chase policy, disciplinary procedures, and the like, you can find
source material here, here, and here. That’s where
you can find Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, Police Chief Michael McGrath, and
Cleveland City Council, respectively, holding forth on these and related
topics.
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* SMMH = Shaking My Metaphorical Head.
^ An earlier version of this post mis-identifed this speaker as the mother of the murdered girl. Thanks to a Real Deal reader for the correction.
^ An earlier version of this post mis-identifed this speaker as the mother of the murdered girl. Thanks to a Real Deal reader for the correction.
