There are people who become completely unreasonable when the subject of guns comes up. It’s not they’re stupid or anything. They’re often quite intelligent people, particularly on any number of other topics, but when someone starts talking about firearms, they seem to completely lose any resemblance of rationality.

I can’t help but think about that when I read about people protesting a shooting range opening up in their town.

Dozens of people gathered on a cool January afternoon in Sylvania on Sunday to either protest, or support, a new indoor gun range that’s slated to open in the city.

Community stakeholders opposed to the range aimed to show what’s at stake if the business is allowed to open at the former Andersons Market on Sylvania Avenue across the street from Kroger.

“I am a teacher and if we would see someone carrying a gun near our school we would not know if that person is a threat or not,” said Margaret Kohler, who was there to protest the opening of the gun range.

Some protesters who showed up say they aren’t against guns, but rather, the location of the proposed business. There is a school, a lead, a grocery store, a medical facility, and a residence in close proximity to the site.

“This is not about guns, this is not about gun control, we respect people. We respect your opinion. If you want to carry a gun, that’s the law of the land. It’s about the location of the supposed shooting range,” said protester S. Maseeh Rehma.

Except, it really is about guns and gun control.

The teacher claims they wouldn’t be able to tell if someone is a threat or not, but that’s wrong. I won’t call it a lie because she probably believes that with all her heart, meaning she’s not lying, just wrong.

See, if someone is going to use a gun in an aggressive manner, they’re going to carry it quite differently than if they’re heading to a day at the range. The body language signals that someone isn’t a threat to any rational person seeing them. The only people who couldn’t tell are hoplophobes who are so freaked out by a firearm that they soil themselves the moment they see it.

Further, let’s talk a bit about proximity here.

Now, I get concerns about outdoor ranges. Stray bullets may not be a common concern, but I get the fear. I don’t agree with it, but I get it. Yet this is an indoor range.

What this is really about, though, isn’t safety.

Think a moment about the businesses we typically keep away from schools, residential neighborhoods, and so on. That’s right, things like liquor stores, strip clubs, adult stores of various types, bars, and so on. You know, “sinful” activities.

What these people are trying to do is equate a constitutionally-protected right, one our Founding Fathers desperately believed to be essential to a free society, with sinful behavior. That’s right, they see guns as a sin and don’t want them nearby.

It’s not because of any potential threat. There isn’t any. The world isn’t filled with examples of people leaving gun ranges then shooting up nearby neighborhoods. There are precisely zero, so far as I can recall. There’s no threat, no point for concern.

But when you’re governed by irrational fear brought on by a constant stream of media screaming at you how guns are bad, you’re going to be concerned no matter what.