Quicken Loans Arena bans firearms; RNC considers alternate sites

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Petition to allow guns at the Republican Convention gaining steam

Candidates Trump and Cruz support the idea

An online petition seeking to allow guns at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July has garnered more than 21,000 supporters.

Quicken Loans Arena, the site of the RNC, does not allow firearms or any other weapons on its premises, despite Ohio being an open carry state.

The petition, started Monday, said the Arena’s policy is “a direct affront to the Second Amendment” and “puts all attendees at risk.”

“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,” the group said in a statement.

The petition’s argument is in line with the National Rifle Association’s oft-repeated argument that “the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun.”

The two leading Republican presidential candidates, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, immediately expressed support for the petition.

Trump’s campaign issued a statement saying, “Mr. Trump is fully supportive of our 2^nd Amendment right to carry guns and believes it is critical for his supporters at the convention, the good guys, to protect themselves from Lyin’ Ted’s bad guys.”

In a rare display of general agreement between the candidates, Cruz’s campaign said that the senator “supports our God-given right to bear arms” and feels that right is particularly important at the Republican convention where there will “clearly be both good guys and bad guys.”

In the only discord between the campaigns’ support of the petition, the Cruz campaign was strongly offended by Trump’s characterization of their supporters as the bad guys, saying, “Senator Cruz believes that Donald has stooped to a new low today, since everyone knows that the real bad guys out there are the people supporting Sleazy Donald.”

For it’s part the Republican National Committee has not issued a formal position regarding the petition. But, we have learned that RNC Chairman, Rance Priebus, is considering convening an emergency meeting of the RNC Convention Committee to consider alternative sites in the event the Quicken Loans Arena stands by its policy to not allow firearms into the arena. The the leading alternative site is rumored to be the O.K. Corral in the city of Tombstone Arizona.