Not surprisingly, those hoping to bring firearms into the Republican National Convention will be disappointed: Guns are strictly prohibited inside the Milwaukee venue. But what about the area outside the arena?
The inner perimeter will have similar gun restrictions, though as my MSNBC colleague Clarissa-Jan Lim noted last month, “Open and concealed carry will be permitted up to within a few blocks of the event space, per Wisconsin state law.”
In the wake of the attempted assassination targeting Donald Trump on Saturday, Wisconsin’s governor believes it’s time to change that policy. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported:
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers has requested that the decision to allow firearms within the soft perimeter of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee be reconsidered “immediately” following the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, a source with knowledge of the discussion shared with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The request was made to the U.S. Secret Service, which would relay the governor’s concerns to the Republican National Committee, the source said.
In theory, the Democratic governor’s request seems entirely sensible. In practice, it’s unlikely to go anywhere.
As the local report added, “The power to ban firearms in the security ‘footprint’ outside the credentials-only ‘hard’ security zone seems to rest with the state, not the Secret Service, the RNC or the City of Milwaukee.”
A New York Times report noted that some local officials tried to change the policy months ago — long before a gunman targeted the former president — pushing a city ordinance that would’ve banned firearms near the convention site. It failed.
As the Times’ article noted, “The city is prevented from regulating firearms beyond state law, officials said.”
What we’re left with is a situation in which the Secret Service doesn’t have the authority to expand the existing security footprint. The governor can’t do it, either. Neither can Republican National Committee organizers. Even local officials can’t act, despite wanting to.
Under Wisconsin’s current state law, local communities can’t approve gun policies that go further than state law — and since state law allows open and concealed carry, Milwaukee’s hands are tied.
Ideally, the Republicans’ gerrymandered majority in the state legislature could’ve taken steps along these lines, but there wasn’t any such appetite among GOP lawmakers.
That said, it’d be an overstatement to suggest that the area outside the venue will have zero restrictions. The Journal Sentinel reported in May: “Those looking to cross into the area immediately outside the Republican National Convention perimeter will likely have to leave behind non-plastic containers, tennis balls and other typically innocuous items. What won’t be prohibited: Guns.”
Alderman Robert Bauman told the newspaper at the time, “I find that totally absurd. Literally, you can’t have tennis balls, but you can have an AR-15 assault rifle.”
