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Guns are banned, but are Oklahoma lawmakers packing?

In this Tuesday, May 3, 2016 photo, Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper Phillip Ellyson, left, waits for Philip Ward of Okmulgee, Okla. to empty his pockets at a security checkpoint at the Oklahoma Capitol in Oklahoma City. Even as construction workers and employees wait to pass through metal detectors at the entrances to the Oklahoma Capitol, some lawmakers now regularly skirt the weapons screening and set off the security alarms. (AP Photo/Sean Murphy)
In this Tuesday, May 3, 2016 photo, Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper Phillip Ellyson, left, waits for Philip Ward of Okmulgee, Okla. to empty his pockets at a security checkpoint at the Oklahoma Capitol in Oklahoma City. Even as construction workers and employees wait to pass through metal detectors at the entrances to the Oklahoma Capitol, some lawmakers now regularly skirt the weapons screening and set off the security alarms. (AP Photo/Sean Murphy)

By Associated Press 5 min read

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – It’s become a common scene at the Oklahoma Capitol: While construction workers, employees and visiting schoolchildren wait patiently to walk through the metal detectors guarding the entrances, a man with a briefcase arrives and breezes straight through the checkpoint without stopping, setting off the alarms. The security officers on duty flinch but look away.

Just a lawmaker in a hurry? That’s all it is, some members say. But security officials are grumbling about a trend among some conservative legislators who are now declining to submit to the weapons screening that has been required at government buildings for years. And suspicions are growing about a likely reason: they’re armed.

“I won’t name names, but I know for a fact that they do,” said Rep. Sally Kern, a conservative Republican who says she doesn’t necessarily disapprove of lawmakers who carry guns at the Capitol. She said several colleagues have admitted to being armed. “I take my colleagues at their word.”

Oklahoma is one of 45 states that now allow some form of open carry of firearms, and pro-firearms lawmakers have been pushing to make guns allowable in most places, even college campuses and public arenas. A bill now pending in the Legislature would eliminate the need for licenses, training or background checks.

But most states have drawn the line at bringing guns into the Capitol. Firearms are permitted in the Texas, New Hampshire and Idaho statehouses, but other conservative states including Oklahoma have turned aside such proposals because of security concerns about government buildings as possible targets of violence. Attempting to bring a gun into the Capitol is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine.