Satirical or serious? Petition for guns at Republican convention raises questions
Satirical or serious? Petition for guns at Republican convention raises questions
Change.org says the posting, which has collected thousands of signatures, came from an open-carry supporter – but opponents have also highlighted it
Jamiles Lartey
@JamilesLartey
Monday 28 March 2016 15.20 EDT
Declaring himself a “very, very strong person for the second amendment”, Donald Trump told ABC’s This Week he couldn’t rule out support for a petition to allow open carry at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland this summer.
“I want to read the fine print,” Trump said.
The viral Change.org petition has collected more than 40,000 signatures, including more than 9,000 in the past 24 hours. It calls the firearm ban at the Quicken Loans Arena, which is hosting the convention, “a direct affront to the Second Amendment”.
In Ohio, the open carry of a legally possessed gun is fully lawful, but individual businesses can ban weapons from their premises if they so choose.
The Quicken Loans Arena explains on its website that “in accordance with Ohio’s ‘concealed carry’ law and the right for private entities to ban handguns on their premises, firearms and other weapons of any kind are strictly forbidden on the premises”.
More:
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/28/republican-convention-gun-petition-change-org