Quote:An Open Carry Protest Outside a Trump Rally? What Could Go Wrong?
Today in the United States of 'Murica.
By Charles P. Pierce
Apr 13, 2016
I have watched American politics for nearly four decades, so relax. There is absolutely nothing that can go wrong with this kind of event.
Tomorrow, we expect a great deal of outside traffic around campus related to the appearance of a presidential candidate at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall. We have been told to expect that there will be, in particular, individuals coming to campus to express their viewpoints and to exercise their civil rights.
We have been informed that there may be a group openly carrying firearms in a demonstration of their commitment to the Second Amendment.
Pennsylvania law allows open carry on public property. We expect that these demonstrators, if present, will abide by the law and remain off private property, which includes University of Pittsburgh campus areas.
If this presidential election is remembered for anything at all, let it be remembered as the time when a lot of really bad ideas came into collision with one another. These are just two of them—guns and buttheads.
Ken Daniels · University of Kentucky
I'm less interested in the protests and more interested in what happens when a Stone/Trump goon comes pounding on the doors of certain hotel rooms.
However, this could be interesting to see how Trump's little private security force responds.
Nora Hassett-Jays · Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
I work a block from the rally and we have an early dismissal to get "out of Dodge" so to speak. The man who organized it on Reddit also talked about the "castle doctrine" defense (which requires the other person to have a weapon as well in Pennsylvania) and traffic blockades as the same as "kidnapping". This should go very well.
Terry Moran · Loyola University of Chicago School of Law
Bad combination: the age old interpretation of the First Amendment as requiring pretty much unfettered speech and assembly, and the current interpretation of the Second Amendment, first conjured up by the late, not-so-great, Fat Tony, that any yutz can carry any gun anywhere and everywhere that yutz pleases.
So, a guy still cannot shout "Fire!" in a crowded theater, but he now can sit down next to another patron while obviously packing a Glock. What a country.
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