At one time, Arizona was known as the most gun-friendly state in the nation, at least when you looked at their gun laws. They've slipped a bit, but not so much because they've swallowed gun control. It's just that other states sort of leapfrogged them.

But over the last handful of years, it's been a precarious thing there. They've been electing anti-gun voices to statewide offices, both state and federal, and it's only been through Republican control of the state legislature that they haven't gotten a ton of anti-gun regulations passed.

Now, though, that majority is in jeopardy and some are wondering what would happen if Republicans lost their hold on both chambers.

Increased gun regulation is something that Arizona Democrats have long been fighting for, only to be shut down by Republican legislators. With a chance of winning the majority in November, policymakers are brainstorming gun control bills they would like to see on Gov. Katie Hobbs’ desk.

Only two seats away from having a Democratic majority in Arizona’s legislative chambers for the first time in six decades, the Democratic Caucus has established a plan they say would allow them to hit the ground running in 2025 should they take control of the Legislature. This story is part of a series of what a Democratic trifecta would look like for Arizona taxpayers.

“In the event that we flip, we want to be ready to govern,” Sen. Christine Marsh, D-Phoenix, told The Center Square.

A Democratic trifecta, however, would not be enough to change any of the protections listed in Article 26 of the Arizona Constitution, which goes further than the 2nd Amendment in its explicit protection to own firearms.

Unfortunately, there are a few provisions that are going to get a push from Democratic lawmakers, and while the state constitution may go further than the Second Amendment, that's still going to involve a lengthy court battle. If an injunction isn't issued immediately, that means the law gets to go into effect and create untold havoc.

Among those measures are a mandatory storage bill and an effort to try and reduce guns in schools. I don't see how they're going to make that last one happen since it's already illegal. The only guns allowed in schools lawfully are those associated with particular school programs such as armed teachers and school resource officers. Students don't get to bring AR-15s to school.

So what are they going to do, make it extra illegal?

Regardless, only a fool would believe that they'd stop with the small number of measures outlined in the above-linked piece. One thing we've seen time and time again is that once anti-gunners get something that they want, they just keep pushing until they get everything they've ever wanted. This would just be the opening salvo.

What this means is that gun rights advocates in Arizona need to step up and get out to vote. They need to get everyone they know to vote. They need to rally their numbers and make it a point to keep as many Democrats and any anti-gun Republicans out of office so that their rights will be safe for the next couple of years. Then, they need to do it all again. And again.

We don't get to take an election cycle off. Not anywhere, but for folks in Arizona, it's especially important.