A liberal was behind push for guns at GOP convention

The petition on Change.org to allow delegates to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July to carry guns certainly got the attention of the media, no doubt the work of gun-rights advocates, right?

The petition said allowing delegates to carry guns would prevent “mayhem.”

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.

Yesterday, the Secret Service dismissed the idea, which actually came from a liberal Democrat, CBS News’ Arden Farhi reports today.

Jim says he wrote the petition knowing it was somewhat preposterous — that law enforcement would never allow the Republican presidential candidates inside an arena with potentially thousands of armed individuals. “There were never going to be guns at the convention. Not a million signatures were going to make that happen,” Jim said.

But he also knew that if the Republican candidates sincerely meant what they have been saying about expanding Second Amendment rights, it would logically follow that they should support a move to allow firearms at the convention. “If they can’t live in accordance with the policies they impose upon us, they owe us that rational conversation,” Jim said.

He continued, “I thought, ‘How do we square how unsafe they’re going to be with what they say makes them safe?”‘ The petition was born.

“I take them at their word,” Jim said. “[Open carry is] a state law in Ohio. I don’t want them to have a terrible event happen [at the convention] and then say if it hadn’t been a gun-free zone, fewer people would have died.”

The man who created the petition said it’s not satire, it’s a “genuine political statement.”

“It would bring them up on intellectual consistency,” he said of the presidential candidates.