Ever since the January 6th storming of the U.S. Capitol, people who already dislike guns have gotten even more squirrelly about firearms near government buildings. They apparently believe that if someone really wanted to launch a military-like attack on a government center, words on a piece of paper or computer screen would somehow stop them from doing so.

As if the laws about attacking government buildings in the first place wouldn’t be sufficient if that were the case.

However, not all lawmakers are complete blithering morons, apparently. Some want to make it easier for law-abiding citizens to carry in government buildings.

State lawmakers are moving to let more people carry guns into government buildings even as they want to block local law enforcement from enforcing federal gun laws.

 

And they are taking steps to keep Arizona safe from any new Biden-imposed restrictions on weapons.

 

On a party-line vote, members of the House Committee on Government and Elections approved legislation that says if someone has a state-issued permit to carry a concealed weapon they would be free to ignore “no guns” signs posted on the door. The only way cities and counties could actually enforce a gun-free zone zone would be to install metal detectors and hire people to staff the equipment.

Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, said that makes sense.

“Placing a sticker that says ‘no weapons allowed’ with a little red hash, that stops law-abiding citizens from bringing weapons into government buildings,” he said.

“It doesn’t stop criminals, potentially dangerous criminals,” Kavanagh continued. “So what you do is you create gun-free zones where the honest people are disarmed and the criminals can go in and have an advantage.”

Precisely.

I get the desire many lawmakers have regarding the safety of government buildings. After all, they and many other people who work in those buildings make enemies just going about their day-to-day work. This is the nature of the beast.

Yet the idea that a sticker makes them safer is one of the stupidest things someone can believe.

It does none of that. None at all.

What it does, though, is disarm law-abiding citizens who represent no threat to anyone. It makes them unsafe.

Even if we could believe for one moment that a government building could ensure perfect safety for all occupants–and the United States Capitol, which has its own police force, couldn’t do that so I doubt your local courthouse could–that reach only goes so far. Namely right up until you’re outside the building itself.

At that point, you’re disarmed and at the mercy of anyone who wants a piece of you for whatever reason. We’d like to believe you’re safe to at least get to your car where you may have stowed your firearm, but that’s an assumption I wouldn’t begin to be comfortable making. Yet even if you make that assumption, there’s still a window where you’re vulnerable.

The government can’t protect you. The courts have ruled that it has no obligation to protect you. That means you need to protect yourself, so you need the tools to do so.

Arizona lawmakers are trying to make sure you have them, even if you have to visit a government building for some reason.

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