I carried a gun around the Democratic National Convention, and it was a real pain.
Last week, for the Republican National Convention, the Washington Free Beacon staff stayed in a wonderful modern home in the Tremont section of Cleveland. With nine 20- and 30-something reporters packed into a three-bedroom house, the vibe quickly spiraled toward frat house. There was a heated argument over the proper response to receiving a steak that's not cooked to your liking—the main takeaway being not to throw away said steak right in front of the man who cooked it for you. One Free Beaconer burned himself while removing a tray of baked potatoes from the oven with his bare hands.
This week, for the DNC, I'm at my Dad's house in Springfield, Pa., just outside of Philly—far superior to the airport Hampton Inn. I assumed having a car would provide not only a convenient way to drive to the convention but also a convenient location to store my Springfield XDS (and my wonderful Alien Gear holster) whenever I couldn't have it on me.
I had planned to drive down to the stadium complex in South Philly—home of the Linc, Citizens Bank Park, the Wells Fargo Center, the area is designed to accommodate upwards of 100,000 people at any given time—and park in one of the many expansive parking lots. That way I could make the main convention area my home base and drive anywhere else in the city I wanted to go at any given time.
Sadly, the DNC and Secret Service had other things in mind.
Unlike Cleveland, which had a modest security perimeter around the arena where most of the convention was held, Philly's security perimeter was massive. It encompassed the entire sprawling stadium complex. No non-permitted parking. No protesting. No prohibited items (including my XDS). Several square miles of South Philly were completely locked down.
The fact that the convention took place all across the city didn't help matters much. Neither did the sweltering summer heat, though that may have contributed to my weight loss more than the cheesesteaks. The city's illegal ban on guns in city parks further complicated matters for me.
And when I say illegal, I mean that quite literally. Philadelphia passed an ordinance in 2013 barring firearms for all of the city's many parks. It did this despite the fact that state law specifically bans cities and other local jurisdictions from creating their own gun laws.
It's the worst kind of gun law: created as a political statement, used as a mere tack-on in conjunction with other pre-existing crimes, a burden only to the law abiding, and illegal on its face to boot. I personally wouldn't mind being charged and taking the city to court but I think my editors would prefer I not get arrested during my convention coverage. Besides, it seems likely the city will be sued over the illegal park ban when the Pennsylvania legislature re-institutes a recently-struck-down-for-procedural-reasons law allowing groups such as the NRA to challenge illegal local gun ordinances in court.
Since I'm a law-abiding citizen—and since most of the convention events happened inside Secret Service perimeters and most protests were held in city parks—I didn't carry nearly as much as I had planned to. My gun mostly stayed locked in my car which mostly stayed in the rare Center City parking garages that weren't filled with the beat down jalopies of Bernie-supporting hippies.
Though I had to take my gun on and off throughout the day and I couldn’t carry at many DNC events, I was able to bring my XDS to many of the places in the city I ended up. I carried in the joint BuzzFeed/Washington Post party. Nobody cared (read?) about how I carried at the same event last week.
John Stanton was the only BuzzFeed writer I saw at the party since it ran the same time as Obama's big speech. I'm happy to report he was not tackled by security this time around. It was a pretty low-key event but I did have a nice time chatting with an Intercept writer about why Adam Kredo is awful.
I'm sure those gathered at Tuesday's gun control rally in Logan Square are relieved to know I wasn't packing while I searched for the free popsicles they were giving out to placate the hot participants. I doubt those at the Black Guns Matter meeting I went to on Monday mind knowing my XDS was there with me. I'm not sure how the Quakers would feel about me carrying into one of their buildings for a brief stop off at some sort of socialist gathering. They probably wouldn't have been thrilled.
I was sans firearm as I explored the dreary and, compared to Cleveland, awful media tent with James O'keefe and another dude from Project Veritas. That's when the Bernie delegates stormed in, sat down, and all hell broke loose. Or, well, that's when every idle camera in the convention suddenly rushed to see what was up and try to interview the intentionally mute delegates at least.
Afterwards I got some free water ice from Univision and tried to visit the Victory Beer Hall inside the stadium complex since Victory Brewery is located in my hometown. Sadly, CNN took over the beer hall, renamed it the CNN Grill, and wouldn't let anybody in unless they had a special CNN pass.
My diet for the week consisted almost entirely of cheesesteaks from different places all across the city—Carmine's in the Reading Terminal market, Pete's on 21st street near Logan Square, both Pat's AND Geno's on Passyunk (Pat's is, and always has been, better), and Tony Luke's situated under the I-95 overpass in South Philly—Wawa hoagies, street cart soft pretzels, and a bunch of Rita's water ice. While this Philly diet hasn't proved as successful as my colleague's Cleveland diet, it did manage to help me drop about two pounds ... somehow.
It also provided me a random opportunity to have lunch with a bunch of Harry Reid (D., Nev.) staffers who admired my Free Beacon branded renegade Bill Kristol shirt. The Senate minority leader happened to have a craving for some delicious Tony Luke's at the same time as me. I did my due diligence, of course, and found out he ordered his steak whiz wit (masterfully avoiding John Kerry's famous faux pas). He paid for his staff and security detail's steaks too. Good on you, Senator!
All and all it was an interesting, if a bit frustrating, week filled with delicious food. I can't say I'm not glad to be done with these two weeks of all-day convention coverage though.