Guns Allowed All Over—Except Near Politicians

Steve Hickey, a Republican state legislator in South Dakota, has 17 guns, a National Rifle Association card, and a faith that pistol-packing residents make public places safer—except for the one where he works. “We have the most contentious issues being debated in public policy, affecting people in irate, angrily ways and affecting millions and millions of dollars,” Hickey says of the copper-domed capital in Pierre, where he sponsored a bill that allows some teachers to carry firearms in schools but opposed one that would let law-abiding citizens bring them into the statehouse. “This is different than when you go work at the bar,” he says. “This is different than you working at the bank.”

Since the 2012 shooting of 26 students and teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., 18 states have passed laws allowing guns in more places, including schools, restaurants, churches, and public buildings. The best antidote to violence, backers such as Hickey argue, is to have more citizens carrying weapons. Yet only four of those states—Utah, Idaho, Mississippi, and Texas—extend that logic to their legislative chambers.