MILWAUKEE — People will be allowed to carry guns within blocks of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee next month, and protesters will be given two outdoor stages, one within sight of the convention arena, under a security plan law enforcement authorities released Friday.

Demonstrators pushed back, arguing that the plan’s protest zones are so far from the Fiserv Forum that they won’t be seen or heard.

The plan calls for two perimeters that extend for blocks around the arena. Vehicles will have to pass through checkpoints to travel between the two boundaries. Pedestrians will be allowed to move freely without being screened in that area but only convention goers will be allowed within the inner perimeter.

No weapons of any kind will be allowed within the inner perimeter, but people will be able to carry guns openly or concealed elsewhere as allowed under state law. Wisconsin statutes outlaw only machine guns, short-barreled shotguns and silencers.

“It’s about behaviors,” said Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman. “So, understand that there is going to be that level of surveillance and monitoring that that’s the particular right that you like to express. Just don’t do anything that could be considered a threat or harm to the public.”

Weapons haven’t been the only question dogging city officials as they grapple with how to handle tens of thousands of people in the city’s downtown during the convention, set to run July 15-18. More than 100 organizations have applied to demonstrate at the convention so far, Nick DeSiato, Mayor Cavalier Johnson’s chief of staff, said during a news conference.

The Coalition to March on the RNC — a group of local and national organizations including the Milwaukee Democratic Socialists of America, immigrant advocacy group Voces de La Frontera and the American Party of Labor — has planned a protest parade on the first day of the convention.

The coalition contends that it has been trying to obtain a permit for the parade since April 2023, but city officials still haven’t granted it. The city has also been slow-walking release of a parade route, the coalition maintains, raising fears that the city won’t allow protesters within sight of the arena.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit on the coalition’s behalf on June 5 alleging the delay in releasing a route amounts to a denial in violation of the coalition’s free speech rights.

The ACLU has asked U.S. District Judge Brett Ludwig to issue a temporary injunction forcing the city to designate a route within sight and hearing of the arena and immediately process the coalition’s permit applications. Ludwig has set a scheduling conference for the case on Monday.

The security plan authorities released Friday establishes a parade route just inside the far southern edge of the outer perimeter, about five blocks from the arena, with a stage for speakers within the route.

Asked if he believes the route will satisfy the coalition, DeSiato said it runs along the inner perimeter fence and that was as close as authorities could get marchers to the arena when considering exit points and emergency vehicle access. He said setting up the route was a “very complicated math problem.”

The plan also establishes a stage for protest speakers on the northern edge of the perimeter about a block from Fiserv Forum.

DeSiato said the city will provide a sound system for speakers on both stages, but each speaker will be limited to 20 minutes to ensure everyone gets a chance to talk.

ACLU attorney Tim Muth said in a statement that the organization was “surprised and disappointed” at the sheer size of the inner perimeter. The large radius makes it more important that the city allow free expression and assembly, he said, and he promised to continue the lawsuit.

“We hope for a swift ruling that will vindicate the coalition’s plan for a march that passes within sight and sound of Fiserv Forum,” he said.

Omar Flores, a coalition co-chair, told reporters at a news conference later Monday that the demonstration zones are unacceptable and accused city leaders of turning Milwaukee into a Republican playground.

He said that coalition demonstrators want to be within sight and sound of Fiserv Forum’s front doors and they’ll follow their own parade route.

A Friday morning shooting at a Fordyce, Arkansas, grocery store left three people dead and 11 wounded, including the suspect and two law enforcement officers, according to Arkansas State Police.

The suspect and the law enforcement officers are not considered to have life-threatening injuries, ASP Director Mike Hagar said at an afternoon press conference near the scene of the shooting.

The condition of the remaining victims range from non-life-threatening to “extremely critical,” Hagar said.

State Police later identified the suspected shooter as Travis “Joey” Posey. A booking record on the Ouachita County Sheriff’s jail website shows Travis Posey, 44, as being held for another county. Posey is charged with three counts of first-degree murder, according to inmate search site VINELink. ASP later confirmed that information in a press release.

A LinkedIn page lists Posey as the owner of Posey Tree Service in Kingsland in Cleveland County.

The shooting occurred about 11:30 a.m. at the Mad Butcher, part of a regional grocery chain, located at 920 W. 4th Street in a small shopping center. Fordyce (population 3,238 in 2022) is about an hour’s drive south of Little Rock in Dallas County.

Hagar did not release the identities of any of the dead or wounded nor of the shooter at the his 4 p.m. press conference, but said there was no continued threat to the community.

“It’s tragic, our hearts are broken,” he said.

KARK 4 News reporter Caitrin Assaf said she spoke to the parents of one of the victims who died. They told her their 23-year-old daughter, a nurse, was off work on Friday and likely was shopping when she was shot.

A video posted on Facebook by Casey D. Rodriguez from the vantage of a nearby gas station convenience store shows a person lying on the ground behind a vehicle; 11 shots can be heard along with sirens. Other online video and photos show storefront windows with dozens of bullet holes.

Another video shot from inside a store on X posted by user @LRHNcash shows a man with a long gun shooting methodically in different directions.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette interviewed Ronald Clayton, who said he and his wife were pulling into the Mad Butcher parking lot when something hit the windshield of his Nissan Sentra. He thought at first that it was a rock, then realized it as bullets, he told the newspaper. A photo accompanying the report show a car with about a dozen bullet holes in the right front fender and door.

In a post on X early Friday afternoon, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said she was thankful for the “heroic actions” of law enforcement and other first responders and said her prayers were with the victims.

I have been briefed on the tragic shooting in Fordyce, and I’m in constant contact with State Police at the scene. I am thankful to law enforcement and first responders for their quick and heroic action to save lives. My prayers are with the victims and all those impacted by this…

— Sarah Huckabee Sanders (@SarahHuckabee) June 21, 2024

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Data on the Gun Violence Archive shows Friday’s mass shooting was the second this month in Arkansas and the sixth this year. A mass shooting, per the site, is one with a minimum of four victims, either wounded or killed, and excluding the shooter or shooters.

Anna Morshedi of Greater Little Rock Moms Demand Action and Insherah Qazi, a member of the Students Demand Action National Organizing Board from Arkansas, both issued statements about the shooting Friday afternoon, calling for action to stem the rash of gun violence in the United States.

“Our hearts are with those who were wounded and their families after today’s shooting — where yet another trip to the grocery store ended in tragedy because of America’s gun violence crisis,” Morshedi said. “We’re fed up with having to live in fear every day because our lawmakers refuse to put our safety first.”

“It’s heartbreaking to see such senseless violence continue to cycle throughout our communities. But this is what happens when our state lacks basic gun safety laws,” Qazi said. “Arkansas has the weakest gun laws in the country and our gun violence rates show for it. Going to the grocery store shouldn’t be a death sentence. The answer to solving this crisis is clear, it’s just a matter of whether lawmakers have the courage to act.”

The Arkansas chapters of Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action are part of Everytown for Gun Safety.

Arkansas has the weakest gun laws of any state in the country, ranking 50th in the Everytown Gun Law Rankings.

Lawmakers in 2021 repealed an Arkansas law requiring a permit to carry a concealed weapon in public and in 2023 amended the law to clarify that concealed carry licensing is solely to allow reciprocity for licensees who travel to other states that require a permit to carry a concealed handgun. Act 777 also specifies that a person is not required to obtain a license to carry a concealed handgun in Arkansas.

According to Everytown, Arkansas has the 9th-highest rate of gun deaths in the US. In an average year, 638 people die by guns and another 1,247 people are wounded in Arkansas.

At least two people were killed and several wounded, including a police officer, in a shooting at a supermarket in Arkansas on Friday, local media reported.

The shooting occurred at the Mad Butcher store in Fordyce, Arkansas, the news outlet Arkansas Online reported, citing local law enforcement officials.

Dallas County Sheriff Mike Knoedel told a local CBS News Affiliate that the incident has been contained.

Fordyce is a small community of 3,200 people in central Arkansas.