This proposed regulation punishes law-abiding citizens by forcing us to abdicated our Secomnd Amendment RIGHTS in public places.  The governor has no right or reason to so do.  By establishing government spaces as "gun-free zones," the governor creates and ADVERTISES--as the recent shootings in California so painfully demonstrate--soft targets, inviting terrorists, violent criminals, and the criminally insane to perpetrate atrocities.  All but two mass shootings since 1950 were carried out in areas where law-abiding citizens were disarmed, giving murderers easy prey. 

The governor is seeking a solution for a non-existent problem in an effort to promote gun control.  Unfortunately, every measure the governor advocates, including this one are aimed at controling law-abiding citizens.  Not one of his initiatives would have prevented any of the mass shootings in recent years.  In fact, these initiatives are cold-hearted and calculated political moves that prey on people's emotions to advance an agenda aimed ultimately at disarming the citizenry.  That the governor has suggested nothing that would have prevented any of these tragedies while pushing a punative agenda aimed at restricting the rights of law-abiding citizens is prima fascie evidence of an ulterior motive.

 We have had no shootings in state agencies and this prohibition on those with a concealed handgun permit, some of whom have active and ongoing threats to their lives, is entirely without any justification and needlessly and recklessly endangers innocent lives.

Disarming good citizens (who are the only ones likely to obey the prohibition) does not make them safer. In fact, all available evidence points to the contrary.  A Harvard study from a few years ago concluded there is a direct correlation between the strictness of a nation's gun control laws and the rise in violent crime across the board.  In EVERY nation that implemented stricter controls, the evidence suggested that while law abiding citizens complied with these laws, criminals took advantage of that fact.  This measure will not protect government employees or those that must utilize government facilities.  Quite the contrary, it will dramatically increase the odds of them becoming targets of violence.

Importantly the Governor has no authority for this regulation.  If the General Assembly wanted the Governor to have such power, they would have granted it to him explicitly, as is required constitutionally. This lawless behavior cannot be tolerated.  We are a nation ruled by law, not fiat; a law where we act according to a constitution, not the whims of demagogues.

This proposed regulation is not only reckless and revolting in its efforts to play on victims' emotions and people's fear in order to score political points, it is also dangerous.  It endangers state employees, law abiding citizens, and the innocent by making state buildings safe for terrorists, criminals, and the criminally insane to carry out their evil designs.

This regulations should not be approved and the emergency regulation withdrawn.

Please extended the comment period for another 30 days.