How can anybody be surprised by this news:
The number of people who have notified authorities they will be carrying loaded weapons in the state Capitol area has spiked since the DFL-controlled Legislature put gun-control on the agenda in the wake of the massacre of schoolchildren in Connecticut.
While there were 56 people filing such notifications all of last year, there have already been 148 notifications filed in the last month.
It is legal for a permit-holder to carry his or her loaded weapon into the state Capitol and most surrounding buildings — state Rep. Tony Cornish says he is armed every day, usually with a 40-caliber Glock with a high-capacity ammunition magazine. This past week, supporters of gun-owners’ rights have been a force at the nearby State Office Building, swamping committees that have been discussing background checks, bans on weapons and ammunition and other gun issues.
[…]
In all of 2012, when the pro-gun GOP held control of the Legislature, only 56 new notices were filed, according to a spokesman for the Department.
Based on this article it appears that the author is attempting to insinuate that the increase in notices is due solely to the Democratic Party taking control in the legislature. It’s not until the last paragraph that the real reason is mentioned:
Since Jan. 7, the day before DFLers took control and began talking about responding to the Connecticut shootings, there have been 148 notices filed. More More than 50 new notices were received from Feb. 1 to Feb. 6, which includes days the hearings were taking place in the State Office Building. That is nearly as much as were received all last year.
The sudden spike in notices wasn’t due to the Democrats taking control, it was due to the sudden push for gun control. People in the gun rights movement who carry everywhere and were planning to attend the hearing simply gave notice so they could do what they always do, legally carry a gun on their person. While the author notes that a mere 50 of the 148 notices this year were filed between February 1st and 6th he fails to note that the hearings were known about in January. Many people likely filed their notices as soon as the hearing dates were announced so they didn’t have to file their notices before entering the hearings.
In other words this story is really a non-story and required no more than one sentence to cover. What the author should have wrote was, “Gun rights activists who carry firearms everywhere carried their firearms when attending the hearings on gun control.”