A Change.org petition calling for guns to be allowed at the Republican National Convention this summer came from an unlikely source: a self-proclaimed liberal Democrat.
The man, who a CBS News report identified only as “Jim,” said he is “pretty passionate” about his anti-gun activism and that he wrote the petition knowing that it was unlikely to change the ban on firearms at the convention.
{mosads}”There were never going to be guns at the convention. Not a million signatures were going to make that happen,” he said.
Jim told CBS he started the petition to challenge Republican candidates on their gun stances, saying that if they were actually against gun-free zones like they claimed, they would support the petition.
“If they can’t live in accordance with the policies they impose upon us, they owe us that rational conversation,” Jim said.
“I thought, ‘How do we square how unsafe they’re going to be with what they say makes them safe?'” he continued.
“I take them at their word. [Open carry is] a state law in Ohio. I don’t want them to have a terrible event happen [at the convention] and then say if it hadn’t been a gun-free zone, fewer people would have died.”
Jim added that his petition is not meant as a joke.
“I’m 100 percent sincere in my conviction that guns should be allowed at the GOP convention. [It would be a reflection of] the policies they sought to impose around the nation,” he said.
The Secret Service has shut down any talk of firearms being allowed in the convention.
“Individuals determined to be carrying firearms will not be allowed past a predetermined outer perimeter checkpoint, regardless of whether they possess a ticket to the event,” Secret Service spokesman Robert Hoback said in a statement.
While all of the remaining Republican candidates have bashed the idea of gun-free zones, none have come forward in support of the petition.