The GOP annual convention will be held in Cleveland, Ohio, this July. Although Ohio is an open carry state, Quicken Loans Arena, where the event will be held, strictly forbids firearms on their premises. A petition, purportedly started by the group Americans For Responsible Open Carry, is posted on the change.org website. It asks the arena to suspend their no-weapons policy from July 18-21 to coincide with the Republican National Convention. The petition calls the ban on weapons “a direct affront to the Second Amendment,” that “puts all attendees at risk.” The petition now has more than 36,000 signatures.
When asked about the petition, frontrunner Donald Trump said that he had not seen it, but that he is “a very, very strong person for the Second Amendment,” and wants to study it. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, the other two Republican candidates, have not commented.
Ohio’s Republican Party said that is was unaware of the petition, but did say that the Secret Service will be handling security for the event in conjunction with county, state and federal authorities. In 2012 the Secret Service banned firearms at the Republican convention held in Tampa. The Republican National Committee has not commented.
An article on the cnet website proposes that the petition is satirical. A blog called Hyperationalist claims that they were the ones who started the action. Their post states that it does not seem right that “thousands of patriotic Republican good guys should be left totally unprotected by whatever bad guys might wish to do them harm. I mean forgodsake people, ISIS could show up to take out everybody in and around that building and they’d be sitting ducks…there might even be a bad egg or two among the delegates.”
All three remaining Republican candidates have cited their support for the Second Amendment. All have called for eliminating “gun-free zones.” As governor of Ohio, candidate John Kasich could use his executive authority to override the ban.
Satire or not, the petition is arousing interest from both sides of the gun control debate.