Townhall Media/Beth Baumann

When you think of states like Wyoming, you don’t think of gun control. While it doesn’t have the reputation of Texas when it comes to firearms, it’s not necessarily because it’s anti-gun.

However, a legislative committee in the state just killed a bill designed to expand gun rights.

A Wyoming legislative committee has rejected a bill that would have repealed most gun-free zones in public places.

KGAB-AM reports Senate File 75 failed on a 3-2 vote Wednesday in the Senate Judiciary Committee. However, a bill that mirrors the Senate legislation remains alive in the House.

The proposed legislation would override local gun-control laws and allow people to carry concealed guns on school grounds and in other public places.

The bill’s sponsor argued that the Second Amendment itself overrode the restrictions, which I don’t disagree.

Unfortunately, the world we live in isn’t comfortable with that. Even relatively pro-gun people tend to be less than absolutist when it comes to the Second Amendment.

They like the idea of gun free zones and things of that sort.

For some, it’s not a matter of thinking they work so much as giving police the tools needed to punish people who get caught carrying in those places, somehow believing they’re automatically up to no good.

No, I don’t agree with that. I’m just trying to explain the thinking or lack thereof.

Regardless, the bill didn’t get off the ground.

Honestly, that’s not surprising. While most Second Amendment advocates, myself included, love to see bills like that get proposed, the truth of the matter is that they’re not going to go anywhere. They’re a virtue-signal to the pro-gun voters. The left doesn’t have a monopoly on such things, unfortunately.

Yes, it’s grandstanding. It’s just grandstanding we like.

But at the end of the day, what’s been accomplished? Nothing. Wyoming has just as much gun control as it did before the bill died. Nothing changed.

Sometimes, we’re our own worst enemies in a lot of ways.

You see, for better or worse, most people do think there’s some need for gun control of some description. Yes, even ostensibly pro-gun people. Some don’t want felons being able to buy guns, for example. Others don’t support universal background checks. Others don’t see a problem with magazine restrictions, at least not up to a certain point.

When it comes to the masses, though, they really think we need at least some gun control.

Then we get bills like this that sweep away so many gun laws that people have grown comfortable with, often without prepping the ground beforehand, and wonder why this happens.

Look, I like this bill. I want to see it passed in all 50 states.

But this isn’t how you gain that ground. You have to get people used to the idea. You have to change hearts and minds so that it’s politically palatable to do so. You can’t just introduce a bill that will upend what people know and then be surprised when it doesn’t pass.

Bills like this are great. We need them. But for them to become law, that doesn’t start with broad strokes. If the Democrats are going to take what they can get on disarming us, we need to use the same approach to counter it. I’m not saying to back down or quit pushing forward, mind you, only that proposing bills that aren’t going to pass in the first place may not be the most helpful approach to restoring our gun rights.

At least, those are my thoughts on it, anyway.