Surprise: Author of "open carry at RNC Convention" petition is anti-gun Hillary supporter

In this day and age full of poorly-educated masses (many of them with college degrees), it's pretty much a given that you can get people to sign a petition calling for pretty much anything.

Take the one calling for a ban on di-hydrogen monoxide (DHMO), for example.

According to DHMO.org, the substance is a colorless and odorless chemical compound. Its basis is the highly reactive hydroxyl radical, a species shown to mutate DNA, denature proteins, disrupt cell membranes, and chemically alter critical neurotransmitters. The atomic components of DHMO are found in a number of caustic, explosive and poisonous compounds such as Sulfuric Acid, Nitroglycerine and Ethyl Alcohol. DMHO is also referred to by some as Dihydrogen Oxide, Hydrogen Hydroxide, Hydronium Hydroxide, or simply Hydric acid.

DHMO is also known by another name...water. You know - dihydrogen (H₂) monoxide (O). H₂O.

Countless thousands of people over the years have been conned into signing petitions to ban water, based on scary-sounding facts like "consuming DHMO causes side-effects including excessive uriniation" and "inhaling DHMO, even in small quanities, can cause death." Two separate studies by U.S. researchers found that upwards of 90%(!) of Americans would be willing to sign a petition to support an outright ban on the use of Dihydrogen Monoxide (again, water) in the United States.

So it shouldn't surprise anyone that people were willing to sign a Change.org petition concerning open carry at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

What surprised many, however, is that after days of media articles mocking the entire gun rights community over the petition, is the discovery that it wasn't started by a gun rights advocate at all, but rather by a self-described "liberal Democrat" and "gun control advocate" and Hillary Clinton-supporter.

From CBSNews reporter Arden Farhi, who broke the news:

Jim says he wrote the petition knowing it was somewhat preposterous -- that law enforcement would never allow the Republican presidential candidates inside an arena with potentially thousands of armed individuals. "There were never going to be guns at the convention. Not a million signatures were going to make that happen," Jim said.

But he also knew that if the Republican candidates sincerely meant what they have been saying about expanding Second Amendment rights, it would logically follow that they should support a move to allow firearms at the convention. "If they can't live in accordance with the policies they impose upon us, they owe us that rational conversation," Jim said.

He continued, "I thought, 'How do we square how unsafe they're going to be with what they say makes them safe?"' The petition was born.

Maybe he's being truthful about where the idea came from, and maybe he's not. But the fact is that while "Jim" seems to think he's worthy of a New York PR firm's time and attention, this wasn't even an original idea.

Less than a week before his petition was posted, a similarly satirical article calling for open carry at the convention was posted at the DailyKos.com - just the sort of place a self-described "liberal Democrat" and "gun control advocate" and Hillary Clinton-supporter would be going to get his "news." What's more, "Jim's" petition isn't even the first - this one was posted way back on March 2, and note that without media attention, it has only reached 79 signatures after an entire month.

Like the one from March 2, Jim's petition had relatively few signatures when it first drew the attention of the news media. The media were successful at driving that number higher, and the higher the number goes, the more it serves their agenda of attempting to paint all gun owners as "crazies."

But the only thing "Jim's" petition really proves is that you can get people to sign a petition for anything - even a call for a ban on water.

Chad D. Baus is the Buckeye Firearms Association Secretary, BFA PAC Vice Chairman, and an NRA-certified firearms instructor. He is the editor of BuckeyeFirearms.org, which received the Outdoor Writers of Ohio 2013 Supporting Member Award for Best Website.