Shot Down: Secret Service Nixes Proposal To Let Angry GOP Delegates Bring Guns To Convention

Angry GOP delegates hoping that a rapidly growing online petition would pave the way for them to tote their Glocks at the crowded, heated GOP convention in Cleveland might want to sit down.

The U.S. Secret Service said Monday that it would not, in fact, allow civilians to bring their guns inside the Quicken Loans Arena, longtime home to the NBA Cavaliers and site of July's Republican National Convention.

This despite a change.org petition that had garnered nearly 50,000 signatures by Monday afternoon, asking that citizens' Second Amendment rights be enforced to allow open carry at the convention.

• SEE ALSO: Allow Everybody At GOP's Cleveland Convention To Bring A Gun: Petition

The reason you can't have your AR-15 at the event, expected to be attended by thousands of politically charged people, some of whom may have been encouraged to incite riots by their candidate of choice?

Well, the law.

"Title 18 United States Code Sections 3056 and 1752 provides the Secret Service authority to preclude firearms from entering sites visited by our protectees, including those located in open-carry states," Secret Service spokesman Robert K. Hoback said in a statement to the Washington Post.

"Only authorized law enforcement personnel working in conjunction with the Secret Service for a particular event may carry a firearm inside of the protected site."

The petition had asked for citizens to be able to bring their guns to the arena for safety reasons.

Despite Secret Service protections for every candidate, the petition says that, "By forcing attendees to leave their firearms at home, the RNC and Quicken Loans Arena are putting tens of thousands of people at risk both inside and outside of the convention site."

They called convention attendees, who will be surrounded by highly trained and specialized security forces, "sitting ducks" and "utterly helpless" against an ISIS attack.

"All three remaining Republican candidates have spoken out on the issue and are unified in their opposition to Barack HUSSEIN Obama's 'gun-free zones,'" the petition added for good measure.

Press representatives for Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and John Kasich — the three remaining Republican candidates, all staunch Second Amendment advocates — did not immediately return requests for comment from Patch.

Image: Quicken Loans Arena, via Wikimedia Commons