While I don’t think open carry is always the best policy, I will vehemently defend people’s right to do it. However, I do believe there are times when it’s less than ideal. Just because you have a right to do something, it doesn’t mean it’s smart to do it. That includes taking guns into a state capitol to protest something that has nothing to do with firearms.

However, nothing in that justifies a bill before the state senate seeking to ban the practice of openly carrying a firearm in the capitol.

A pair of state Senate bills introduced Tuesday call for banning guns from Michigan’s Capitol.

The bills, introduced during a months-long fight over the building’s weapons policy, would prohibit open and concealed carry of firearms inside the building. Michigan State Police officers and Capitol security would be exempt. Firearms still would be allowed on the Capitol lawn.

“The only reason most people bring firearms into the Capitol is to intimidate and that is not how the state’s Capitol — the people’s house — is designed to work, nor should it continue to be permissible,” Sen. Rosemary Bayer, D-Beverly Hills, said in a release.

Bayer and Sen. Dayna Polehanki, D-Livonia, sponsored the legislation.

This follows a bill from earlier this month that would dissolve the appointed commission that’s in charge of establishing firearm policy for the capitol.

In other words, the commission didn’t do what they were told to do and now someone wants to not just take it out of their hands, but remove the commission entirely.

Typical.

Honestly, this is beyond stupid. The claim that “most people bring firearms into the Capitol” in order to intimidate is a claim that has no evidence to back it up. Bayer is projecting her own fears as somehow the goal of those who brought guns into the building.

But now it’s not about openly carrying guns. Concealed carry doesn’t intimidate anyone. Concealed means concealed. It means no one knows it’s there, which makes it kind of difficult for that gun to intimidate anyone. By trying to ban that as well, Bayer and Polehanki have betrayed their true motivations.

See, it’s not about the lockdown protests at all. That’s just the pretext.

No, this is about restricting guns because they simply don’t like them. They’re anti-gun and this is the kind of gun control they figure they can get passed right now, but also expect this to be expanded down the road as well. For now, it’s just about the building, but next it’ll be the grounds in totality. After that, it’ll keep encompassing more and more.

It’s an anti-gun power grab and nothing else.

Yeah, this is part of why I don’t favor armed protests over non-Second Amendment topics. It gives people like this an excuse. That said, if it wasn’t the lockdown protests, it would have been something else. The fact that concealed carry is included is ample enough evidence to know precisely what’s driving this effort.

Frankly, some people need to get over their irrational fear of both firearms and lawfully-armed citizens.