There’s a Petition to Allow Open Carry at the GOP Convention. What Could Go Wrong?
A Change.org petition to allow open carry of firearms at July’s RNC convention currently has over 11,000 signatures.
And, yes, it’s probably a joke.
The petition notes that “Ohio is an open carry state, which allows for the open carry of guns, the hosting venue—the Quicken Loans Arena—strictly forbids the carry of firearms on their premises,” a provision the petition’s author says is “a direct affront to the Second Amendment and puts all attendees at risk.”
The RNC Convention is scheduled to take place in Cleveland in July at the Quicken Loans Arena, which bans guns. It will quite possibly be a contested convention — with establishment Republicans angling to swipe the nomination away from Donald Trump, who is likely to enter the convention with the most delegates. Trump has courted controversy by saying his supporters would “riot” if he did not become the nominee.
The user profile of the petition’s author, “N A” from Cleveland, has already been deleted, and some of the petition’s more hyperbolic language seems to support the notion that the author is indeed grasping for “wizard-level troll” status.
Cleveland, Ohio is consistently ranked as one of the top ten most dangerous cities in America. By forcing attendees to leave their firearms at home, the RNC and Quicken Loans Arena are putting tens of thousands of people at risk both inside and outside of the convention site.
This doesn’t even begin to factor in the possibility of an ISIS terrorist attack on the arena during the convention. Without the right to protect themselves, those at the Quicken Loans Arena will be sitting ducks, utterly helpless against evil-doers, criminals or others who wish to threaten the American way of life.
All three remaining Republican candidates have spoken out on the issue and are unified in their opposition to Barack HUSSEIN Obama’s “gun-free zones.”
The petition is addressed to the RNC, the Committee’s chair Reince Preibus, the Quicken Loans Arena, and the three remaining GOP presidential contenders. It invokes remarks each candidate has made blasting “gun-free zones” as irresponsibly unsafe and demands from the NRA an “immediate condemnation of the egregious affront to the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution constituted by the ‘gun-free zone’ loophole to the state law.”
Change.org petitions are meant solely to drum up media attention and build support; the petition is unlikely to effect any change in policy at the convention.
The petition continues:
We are all too familiar with the mass carnage that can occur when citizens are denied their basic God-given rights to carry handguns or assault weapons in public. EVERY AMERICAN HAS THE RIGHT TO PROTECT AND DEFEND THEIR FAMILY. With this irresponsible and hypocritical act of selecting a “gun-free zone” for the convention, the RNC has placed its members, delegates, candidates and all US citizens in grave danger.
We must take a stand. We cannot allow the national nominating convention of the party of Lincoln and Reagan to be hijacked by weakness and political correctness. The policies of the Quicken Loans Arena do not supersede the rights given to us by our Creator in the U.S. Constitution. [emphasis in the original]
Ohio.com reports that the Ohio Republican Party was not aware of the petition, while Brett Pucillo, president of the gun rights group Ohio Carry, told Guns.com that his organization “would love to see this petition take off and the RNC to allow law abiding citizens to carry at the event,” while still noting that they would respect the arena’s policy.
[illustration: DonkeyHotey via Flickr]
