Will the DNC Convention have unisex bathrooms?
Via The Hill:
A man who says he authored a petition to allow open carry of guns at the Republican National Convention says he did it to test the limits of the party’s support for the Second Amendment.
The petition, which has attracted national attention, reads as if it was written by a supporter of gun rights.
Instead, the man behind the petition is a Democrat who plans on supporting Hillary Clinton for president.
The man, who said his name is Jim, is from the Philadelphia area. But he would not provide his full name, saying he has received threatening messages since the petition was published.
An anonymous blogger, who goes by the pseudonym Hyperationalist, is listed as the author of the petition on the website Change.org. Jim reached out to The Hill in response to an email sent to an address associated with the blog.
In a phone interview with The Hill, Jim said he published the petition to call attention to what he sees as a discrepancy in Republicans’ position on gun rights.
He said if GOP candidates were actually against gun-free zones like they claimed, they would support the allowing open carry at the convention.
Some reporters and Twitter users have called the petition a masterful parody of the Republican Party’s position on guns. But Jim said he is serious about his position.
“Everyone wants to call it satire or trolling,” he said. “But it is a serious issue. I tried to write the petition taking them at 100 percent face value.
“If the rest of us get to have law-abiding citizens protecting us with guns at restaurants and schools,” Jim added, then why shouldn’t Republicans have it at their convention?