AT THE GOP CONVENTION, LOADED AK 47’S ARE LEGAL, A CAN OF TUNA ISN’T

…This could be a picture from the GOP National Convention in Cleveland

 

Ohio’s open-carry law next week, could bite their police officials in the butt

 

We all knew that the GOP’s Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, was  going to be different with a nominee such as Donald Trump.  In addition, it will also be strange that former Republican presidents and many Key Republicans are saying that they will be skipping the convention, which is usually one of the most important political events normally attended by the  party’s key politicians.

 

But this year, the Republican get-together is also very different for another reason.  This year, everyone is being given a list of what they cannot take into the event area.  That list includes everything from tennis balls, metal-tipped umbrellas, any canned goods, (canned goods????), bottled water, knives, scissors, back-packs, and assorted other items.

 

But, with all this concern about security, and with what we have all had to deal with the TSA at the airports, this is all very understandable. 

 

However, due to Ohio’s open-carry gun laws, you may not be able to bring your favorite can of Bush’s Baked Beans, but you can bring your loaded AR-15 semi-automatic rifle into the event zone.

 

Cleveland’s city officials are currently preparing for large numbers of protesters. Expected organized groups of protestors that have already said they will be attending include the New Black Panther Party and a group of current and former members of the military called the Oath Keepers.  Both have said that some of them plan to carry weapons.

 

Now, no guns will be allowed inside the Quicken Loans Arena where the actual convention will be held.  Nor will they be allowed within the perimeter controlled by the Secret Service.  But Ohio’s open-carry laws will allow those who legally own guns to take them into that very large event zone.

 

As one publication wrote, “A can of tuna has been declared more dangerous than an assault rifle for the GOP’s big event in Cleveland next week.”

 

The fact that a tennis ball is now deemed more dangerous than military-style weaponry, this is totally indicative of the irrationality of our state’s gun policies.   On top of that, with the Republicans being totally owned by the NRA, don’t expect any fixes anytime soon. The Republican-led House of Representatives will still be on its summer vacation, and no genuine effort, let alone any action, for injecting sense into the nation’s gun laws is expected this year.

 

And all this is occurring as the Cleveland officials are expecting the convention to be a politically charged environment in which there will be a number of people armed to the teeth.  This has given some of them some pause, such as Stephen Loomis, president of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association who has said, “The last thing in the world we need is anybody walking around here with AR-15s strapped to their back.”

 

But with the killing of the five police officers in Dallas last week, open-carry was a serious problem in Dallas.  The police were hampered by the confusion over which people with guns were suspects, and which were just protesters who had brought their guns,  This was all because of the misguided Texas law that allowed them.  Ohio has that same law.

 

The Dallas Police Chief, David Brown stated, “…that if a good guy with a gun is the best way to resolve some of these things. Well, we don’t know who the good guy is versus who the bad guy is, if everybody starts shooting.”

 

This is like Donald Trump’s stupid advise that, “If more people in the Orlando massacre had guns, then perhaps the killer would have been take out.”  Yeah right, or more people would have been killed from cross fire or mis-directed firing.

 

As an example of what can happen under this mis-guided law, last year in Colorado, an individual was spotted carrying a gun and the spotter called 911.  Because this behavior was legal under Colorado state law, the police did not respond immediately. The gunman shot and killed three people.

Today, 40 states, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, allows their citizens to openly carry shotguns and rifles, including assault rifles.  And this is to carry in public, without a permit, or without having any safety training.  In addition, 30 states allow people to openly carry handguns without a permit or safety training.

 

The gun lobby agenda of “guns everywhere, no questions asked” is extreme and irresponsible, but it has been skillfully sold by the NRA.

 

The Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), will be speaking at the convention.  But when asked about the Dallas police chief’s statement about the difficulty that open-carry laws create for law enforcement, Ryan stated: “What we should be focused on right now are solutions.  I think what we should be focused on is listening to people in communities who have done a good job of merging law enforcement with the communities so that these kinds of problems don’t occur.”

 

In other words, let’s not talk about anything such as the obvious and inescapable need for some level of gun control.

 

Many people are expecting that with so many Republicans and independents that  don’t agree with Donald Trump as their nominee, that there will be some trouble occurring at the convention.  The Cleveland Police Department has since gone outside their own police force and is recruiting special help from out-of-state police organizations.

 

The California Highway Patrol (CHP) is just one organization that will be sending dozens of specially trained officers to Cleveland, as requested and paid for, by the Cleveland Police. They will be working with the Ohio State Patrol and the US Secret Service, with the defined mission of security and crowd control.  They will be stationed all around the convention site.

Many people are expecting the kind of trouble and riots that had occurred at the 1968 Democratic Convention held in Chicago, Illinois.

 

With the potential for violence and with the local open-carry laws today, which was not the case in 1968, the problems at next week’s convention could be much worse than what happened 48 years ago.

 

I guess, time will tell.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2016