Apparently the mayor of Tampa isn’t happy about Florida’s preemption laws that prohibit local municipalities from overriding state gun laws:
Frustrated by a Florida law that blocks all local regulation of guns, Mayor Bob Buckhorn expects to reach out to Gov. Rick Scott for help keeping concealed firearms away from protests during the Republican National Convention.
The 2011 state law pre-empts the ability of cities and counties to pass any laws regulating firearms or ammunition.
So while Tampa plans to ban a wide range of weapons (clubs, switchblades, Mace) and things that could be used as weapons (chains, glass bottles, water pistols) outside the convention, it cannot prohibit guns carried with a concealed weapons permit.
If ever a place existed where you would want a firearm it would be the Republican National Conventions (RNC). The RNC will be one of the very few locations that will have armed mobs both inside and outside of the building (honestly, I’m more fearful of the armed mob inside the RNC). What will be interesting is seeing if the newly passed law that makes it illegal to “knowingly, and with intent to impede or disrupt the orderly conduct of Government business or official functions” anywhere the Secret Service is guarding people. At this point all the candidates have Secret Service protection, well except Ron Paul:
So the new law may certainly be enforced at the RNC. I’m guessing this year’s RNC will mirror 2008’s RNC, in which most of St. Paul was turned into more of a police state than it normally is (they had barbed wire and everything).