Gun Bills

This is the Riffe building, where I work!  It's really pretty, but the design is a little nutty... If you enter the building from one street you're on the first floor, but if you enter on another street you're on the 3rd floor.  If you enter at the third floor and want to get on an  elevator, you have to go up two sets of escalators to go one floor up, but somehow it is still called the third floor.  Weird stuff.  All the security guards here know me by now, too, because they check my bags every day when I come in.  I'm finally starting to get into the flow of things!

The other day I watched the House pass a bill which would allow people who have a conceal-and-carry license (which anybody can get, but you need to go through a series of classes and training first) to bring their concealed weapon into a bar.  The main idea in favor of this is that people with conceal-and-carry licenses are law-abiding citizens, and want to be able to defend themselves and their family no matter where they are.  The obvious argument against is that alcohol and guns should never mix, and that even if the law says that you can't drink if you bring in your gun, it's inherently a bad idea.  This is obviously an extremely controversial issue, and lots of the representatives had strong feelings about it in one way or another.  I see reason in both arguments, but the most interesting thing to me is that this may be one of the first times in this general assembly where people were crossing the aisle, and arguing against the position they were expected to based on their political parties.  The only problem is that this is what should be expected.  I would like to see it happen all the time, but because of the strict party-line divisions in most of today's political arguments, it simply doesn't happen often enough, so seeing that was a fascinating thing to watch.