Despite the safety concerns that rabble-rousing leftists and anti-Trump protesters might start trouble at the Republican National Convention, the streets of Cleveland were crowded but calm Monday, except for the rabid media attention paid to anyone who dare carry a firearm in compliance with state law.
While a handful of protestors gathered at the designated protest stage in Cleveland’s public square for differing reasons, and an even larger contingent present at a “Dump Trump” rally just a few blocks away, reports and protestors were at a 1:1 ratio at points.
But, naturally, the one thing guaranteed to tip that ratio towards the media was the lawful presence of a firearm.
In an interview with Claire Hardwick, who was reporting for CR on the scene, Jesse Gonzales, a local Trump supporter carrying an American-made AK-47 said that he’d never had so much press attention in his life as he did when exercising his constitutional rights per state law.
Gonzlalez told CR that the media attention he received has been “really wild.”
“I’ve never been talked to [on] camera before and it’s been like 20 so far,” the 26-year-old told CR. “So far today, it’s been like 20 times.”
“We rode about 120 streets to get here, everyone just said hi and waved,” said a friend of Gonzalez’s remarking on the attention given to the rifle. “But once we got here, the media just surrounded us.”
But Gonzales isn’t alone. Just a day earlier reporters also swarmed another man in the same area for doing the exact same thing.
The photo is of Steve Thacker, a local Marine veteran who told reporters he was simply out open carrying his semiautomatic rifle to “demonstrate [his] Second Amendment rights” just hours after news broke of the slaying of three Baton Rouge police officers.
“This is a statement. I’m not going to be wandering like this except in a situation like this,” the 57-year-old said. “The police are putting their lives on the line every day to protect the people … When somebody targets officers like this it is the greatest show of cowardice I’ve ever seen.”
Open carry is legal throughout the state of Ohio. This fact was driven home Sunday by the fact that Governor and former Presidential Candidate John Kasich declined calls to suspend the practice following the Baton Rouge ambush.
“Ohio governors do not have the power to arbitrarily suspend federal and state constitutional rights or state laws as suggested,” reads a statement emailed to Conservative Review from Kasich spokeswoman Emmalee Kalmbach. “The bonds between our communities and police must be reset and rebuilt–as we’re doing in Ohio–so our communities and officers can both be safe.”
This of course means that there will most likely be more citizens like Gonzalez and Thacker open carrying throughout the week.There will most likely also be a devoted media gaggle not far behind, ready to over-report the exercise of a Constitutional right in arguably the most secure city in America.
While protests and demonstrations so far in Cleveland by-and-large may be nothing that any person used to attending political events hasn’t already seen (just in case you haven’t, leftists and anti-Trumpers gathered and said leftist and anti-Trump things into microphones), one thing is exceedingly clear: is the media love to freak out they see someone exercising their Second Amendment rights. (For more from the author of “The Mainstream Media Is OBSESSED With Open Carry in Cleveland” please click HERE)
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