Photo: AP

A recent online petition to allow open carry of firearms at the Republican National Convention in July, which had acquired 51,376 signatures as of Tuesday evening, was apparently authored by a man who is not actually a Second Amendment activist, but a Hillary Clinton supporter.

The petition is written without any indication that it is satire: “Without the right to protect themselves, those at the Quicken Loans Arena will be sitting ducks, utterly helpless against evil-doers, criminals or others who wish to threaten the American way of life.”

Its Philadelphia-based author is named Jim, The Hill reports, and he blogs under the pseudonym “Hyperationalist.”

Jim said he published the petition to call attention to what he sees as a discrepancy in Republicans’ position on gun rights.

He said if GOP candidates were actually against gun-free zones like they claimed, they would support the allowing open carry at the convention.

Some reporters and Twitter users have called the petition a masterful parody of the Republican Party’s position on guns. But Jim said he is serious about his position.

“Everyone wants to call it satire or trolling,” he said. “But it is a serious issue. I tried to write the petition taking them at 100 percent face value.

“If the rest of us get to have law-abiding citizens protecting us with guns at restaurants and schools,” Jim added, then why shouldn’t Republicans have it at their convention?

Jim also spoke to Rolling Stone. “I’m 100 percent genuine in my belief that they should be able to have guns at their convention,” he said of the RNC. “I think it’s just really uncomfortable for them.”

“They don’t want guns at the convention. They know it’s a bad idea. That’s why no one has ever raised a stink about it. But their silence speaks volumes.”

In a blog post, Jim (or...someone) wrote,

Okay, sooo….that happened.

Listen, I will, I promise, have more to say soon and I hope you’ll check back in to see what that is. I may even try to resurrect some of the stuff I said before this, this, this thing…stuff that I burned and shredded and buried and locked until I could wrap my head around the firestorm created by this, this, this thing.

On Monday, the Secret Service confirmed that they would not permit open carry at the convention.