Yep, Police Will Allow Protesters To Open Carry Guns Outside GOP Convention

FILE – In this Dec. 28, 2015, file photo, Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams answers questions during a news conference in Cleveland. During a Wednesday, July 13, 2016, briefing leading up to the Republican Nat... FILE – In this Dec. 28, 2015, file photo, Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams answers questions during a news conference in Cleveland. During a Wednesday, July 13, 2016, briefing leading up to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland from July 18 to 21, 2016, Williams said he'd prefer people not openly carry firearms during the convention, although Ohio state law allows the practice, and said police will do everything possible to keep everyone safe. (AP Photo/Phil Long, File) MORE LESS
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Cleveland officials said Wednesday that protestors and others congregating outside the GOP convention next week will be permitted to carry guns in keeping with Ohio’s open carry law, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Mayor Frank G. Jackson and Police Chief Calvin Williams told reporters that they are bound by Ohio’s gun laws to allow people be armed, though they both didn’t sound too thrilled about it.

“Our intent is to follow the law. And if the law says you can have open carry, that’s what it says. Whether I agree with it or not is another issue,” Jackson said, according to the Journal.

Williams expressed a similar sentiment, according to the newspaper. When reporters asked if he would prefer that people not be allowed to carry guns, he said “of course.”

Several groups have suggested that they will come armed to Cleveland, including the anti-government militia group Oath Keepers and the New Black Panther Party, the Journal reported.

While guns will be permitted as usual on the street, they will not be allowed inside of the Quicken Loans Arena where the convention is held or within a Secret Service perimeter set up around the stadium, the Journal reported.

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Notable Replies

  1. What could possibly go wrong?

    If the NRA is all about standing with the police, why on God’s earth are they doing their best to make the cops’ job harder?

  2. We’ll see just how polite an armed society really is.

  3. Hey! What could go wrong, other than some untrained liberals shooting themselves by accident.

  4. Will there be a Tree of Liberty nearby as well?

  5. …and open containers, too?

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

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