On July 18-21, the Republican Party held its 2016 convention in Cleveland, Ohio. A significant portion of the media coverage leading up to the event focused on the possibility of violence on the streets involving leftist protesters and rightist counter-protesters. Last year, Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors even threatened to shut down the convention. But there was no breakdown of law and order to speak of, with only some minor skirmishes occurring.

Multiple explanations have been offered for this in both establishment and alternative media. Some credit the lack of involvement of MoveOn.org, unions, and illegal immigrant groups for the small turnout. Others credit the strong police presence. What both groups seem to miss (or are intentionally refusing to credit) is that Ohio is an open carry state and many citizens were present and openly armed.

Joyous though it would have been to see well-armed American citizens physically removing democrats and communists from this plane of existence with the whole world watching, the lack of violence may ultimately have been a more important victory than could have been won in a street battle with radical leftists. This result has shown just how powerful a deterrent to degenerate behavior an armed population can be.

When a citizenry is disarmed, the only people who will be armed are government agents and criminals (but I repeat myself). In such a case, if government agents prove incapable of stopping riots or other violent protests because they are greatly outnumbered, then lawlessness, chaos, and destruction will rule the day. But a large number of armed citizens intent on preserving respect for people and their property raises the cost of acts of aggression beyond what all but the most determined and idiotic rabble-rousers are willing to pay. Even the threat that violent criminals may be shot dead by upstanding citizens is enough to prevent almost all trouble-making which would otherwise occur, as the worst elements will mostly stay home and the better protesters are more likely to demonstrate peacefully. Just as proliferated nuclear weapons tend to keep peace between nation-states, proliferated firearms tend to keep peace between individuals and groups thereof. Finally, the result demonstrates that government is unnecessary for security. Even though a monopoly government police force was present throughout Cleveland, it was ordinary people who desired peace and order who proved themselves capable of maintaining it.

We can certainly understand why the media, police, and politicians would attempt to black out this story. Fearing mass chaos, Stephen Loomis, the president of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association, asked Gov. John Kasich to suspend the right to keep and bear arms during the convention, which Kasich correctly recognized that he lacked the authority to do. Establishment media pundits were nearly unanimous in their fear-mongering over open carry in Cleveland, saying that this could only lead to violence and that essential liberty must therefore be given up for a little temporary safety. They now have egg on their faces, and are thus happy to pretend that the whole thing never happened and move on to another topic of discussion. But we must not let them do that. The 2016 Republican National Convention was a victory for open carry, and it should be shouted loud and clear.

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