The Quiet 2A Triumph in Cleveland: Open Carry Worked Without a Hitch!

By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog

rnc 2016 convention clevelandFears of violence at this year’s Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, never came to fruition, Save Jerseyans, all despite the Buckeye State’s controversial “open carry” law.

How is that possible????? I can hear our liberal friends reading this and rending their garments! All the way from my perch in sunny and scenic South Jersey.

It was an emotional event, after all. Tensions ran very high at points between protesters and police, delegates and Ted Cruz (!), and the summer heat certainly doesn’t help these matters. One would thing it’d be prime time for trouble if folks are running around with armed to the teeth.

Never happened. As of Thursday morning (the final day of the four-day event), there has been less than two-dozen arrests at the RNC, and none of those arrests involved firearm-related violations.

No mass shootings. No drunken gun fights.

I heard anecdotal first-person reports of police proactively approaching gun-carrying visitors, informing them of the right way (and wrong way) to ‘open’ carry, and without fail the gun owners politely complied with the officers.

All in all, it was a relatively low-key and peaceful affair.

Meanwhile, a little under 12-hours west by car, in Chicago, Thursday morning saw an injured police officer and a dead suspect in yet another round of gun violence in the Windy City. A city, as you’re well aware, that has VERY strict gun control laws. Chicago saw 72 murders in June, the worst yet for 2016, in addition to 355 shootings and 429 shooting victims.

What gives? Like I’ve been saying for YEARS — and others before me have said for decades — the root of gun violence isn’t guns. It’s culture. 

MinutemanI said again it back around the time of the 2014 unrest in Ferguson, Missouri:

Race isn’t the problem. Gun aren’t the problem. Don’t blame it on poverty, either. There isn’t a developer or investor in America who turns down an investment opportunity because the targeted area is too poor; Camden, NJ is prime real estate and should be another Hoboken. Why isn’t it? Crime is cultural, not economic, so when shootings, drugs and riots make it impossible for anyone to conduct commerce, then you can be damn sure that poverty will be the end result.

There’s no use beating around the bush: an entire segment of our American family is doomed by bad policies and a dead culture – THAT is the problem. That, and no one is willing to talk about it. Democrats would rather discuss symptoms to win votes. Republicans are terrified to discuss root causes for fear of condemnation. And another 100+ black males, on average, will pay the ultimate price for their exploitation and cowardice, respective, this week.

I don’t have all the answers. No one does.

What I do know?

After the events of this summer, Dallas straight on through Cleveland, anyone who claims the answer is stripping law-abiding gun owners of their constitutional rights should NO longer be taken seriously.

They’ve been proven forever and always wrong on the biggest stage in the world.

It’s a crushing blow to the Left’s worldview. Will any news outlet acknowledge it?

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Matt Rooney
About Matt Rooney 8538 Articles
MATT ROONEY is SaveJersey.com's founder and editor-in-chief, a practicing New Jersey attorney, and the host of 'The Matt Rooney Show' on 1210 WPHT every Sunday evening from 7-10PM EST.