It’s official. You can now obtain a firearm via the same type of service as you can get a burger. We’re really living in a glorious age right now, aren’t we?

Of course, there are significant differences in buying a burger and buying a gun. Even those burgers arguably kill more people every year, you don’t have to undergo a background check for them nor is anyone talking about a licensing requirement prior to getting a Big Mac.

But the fact that gun stores can set up a table outside and handle business, or use a drive-through window if they have one, is an important step. However, it’s also a signal of something very important, and that’s just how many stupid rules there are that are being stripped bare due to COVID-19.

Not a week goes by that we don’t hear about how rules are being ripped apart to speed up a process or to try and deal with a shortage. All those rules and regulations, things we’re told are put in place for our own good, are dismantled in an instant because as it turns out, they’re not that important in the first place.

There’s absolutely no reason why gun sales have to be inside a physical building. There’s no reason why breweries and distillers couldn’t be making hand sanitizer. There’s no reason truck drivers couldn’t put in more hours on the road if they chose.

They couldn’t do those things, though, because the government wouldn’t allow it. It wasn’t safe, they claimed, so they mandated who could do what and where.

Yet when COVID-19 poked its head up on U.S. soil, things changed. Suddenly, it became clear that the rules that we were told were for our own protection were making things worse. They always had, of course, but now it was laid out for the whole nation to see. The truth was revealed and there was little to like about the system as it stood.

Now, we see gun stores as “essential businesses” and the government has loosened rules to allow them to be safer while conducting business. Meanwhile, there’s no evidence that this shouldn’t have been permitted all along. Hell, it’s not like they lifted background check requirements or anything. The ATF just said, “Hey, you know what? Why don’t you go outside where you don’t have to get as close to folks and you can have this cross-breeze to help prevent the spread of the virus. It’s better for everyone.”

Why, again, was this even needed?

Far too many regulations, be they gun regulations or in any number of other industries, have nothing to do with safety or security. They have to do with bureaucrats justifying their own existence. The problem is, we all know now just how ridiculous some of those rules actually were.

The big question is, will common sense win out when this is all over? Will gun stores still be allowed to do business in the parking lot, opening the way for parking lot sales or any number of other options?

They need to. We already know the rule isn’t needed, which means it needs to die.