Richard Morrell with a gun sticking out of the back of his pants at a rally in support of Donald Trump on the first day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (Hilary Swift/The New York Times)The buzzards of open-carry gun laws are coming home to roost.
We saw it in Dallas when five police officers were killed by a disturbed veteran who was not a protester. And we saw it again in Baton Rouge, La., when three officers were gunned down by another disturbed veteran who months before had joined the strange subculture of the sovereign citizens movement – a group with origins in white supremacy whose adherents hold bizarre and complex antigovernment beliefs, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which catalogs hate groups.
Even while our grief is still raw from the senseless murders of eight police officers in two cities – not to mention the unnecessary shootings of two black men at the hands of police just days before – we prepare for the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, where open-carry gun laws have given way to the disconcerting sight of guns everywhere on the streets at this very fractious time.
Police were confused and hampered in Dallas by the legal and open carry of guns by peaceful protesters. The same could happen anywhere, and in Cleveland a top police union official asked Ohio’s governor to ban guns temporarily outside the Republican National Convention (the Secret Service has nixed guns inside the convention hall).
But a spokeswoman for Gov. John Kasich, a Republican, said Sunday that he did not have the authority to suspend the state’s open-carry laws.
Meanwhile, the city, while bound by state law to allow the open carry of firearms, has banned other potential weapons from protest zone near the convention: tennis balls, water pistols and bicycle locks.
After all, Cleveland is this week’s epicenter of the world.
Los Angeles Times reporters there on Sunday showcased a man with an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, a handgun and ammunition standing in Cleveland’s downtown Public Square.
“What are you going to do, ban everything that kills people?” said Steve Thacker, a 57-year-old information technology engineer from Westlake, Ohio, when someone criticized his decision to walk around with his rifle. “The point is to protect yourself. This world is not the world I grew up in.”
What baloney. Thacker clearly bought into the National Rifle Association’s Wayne LaPierre’s quote: “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”
Tell that to eight dead cops and a dozen wounded ones – all of whom were good guys with guns who unquestionably knew how to use them.
Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, a Democrat, says open carry is the state law and it’s just “something we have to deal with.” Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams said his officers have been trained in de-escalation tactics and have sidearms. As an added layer of protection, those officers “are backed up” by other officers in observation points with long guns.
Cleveland authorities have long been bracing for trouble during the convention, clearing out 1,000 spots in local jails and overflow centers and opening the courts for 20 hours a day to process arrestees, according to NBC news. With the help of a $50 million security grant, they purchased 10,000 extra sets of plastic handcuffs, 2,500 interlocking steel security fences, and 2,000 sets of riot gear.
President Barack Obama on Sunday appealed to another safety guard (aside from the U.S. Secret Service and other protection agencies) – our nation’s better angels.
“Five days ago, I traveled to Dallas for the memorial service of the officers who were slain there. I said that killer will not be the last person who tries to make us turn on each other. Nor will today’s killer. It remains up to us to make sure that they fail. That decision is all of ours. The decision to make sure that our best selves are reflected across America, not our worst – that’s up to us.
“We have our divisions and they are not new. Around-the-clock news cycles and social media sometimes amplify these divisions. That is why it is so important that everybody focus on words and actions that can unite this country rather than divide it further. We need to temper our words and open our hearts. All of us.”
Let’s hope our political leaders do just that. And let’s hope Cleveland doesn’t need all that backup firepower, riot gear, handcuffs and jail cells.
With or without better angels in Cleveland, these recent events should make it clear to our state governments that the insane iterations of open-carry gun laws are absolutely not in the best interests of our country.