John Aravosis at Americablog lets the irony roll:

And so what? I thought guns made us safer. Why should it matter if the man was armed? He was simply exercising his Second Amendment rights, right? Sure, he might have had plans to murder all the kids, or take out a few state legislators, but that’s the price you pay for our precious constitutional freedoms. Seriously though, after you read through the story, it’s still not clear, from a gun-nut perspective, what the problem is here? If the guy was creepy because he was tagging along with a bunch of kids, and going through legislators’ desks (another part of the story), then fine, he’s creepy. But the fact that he was armed should have nothing to do with the creepiness because, remember, guns don’t kill people

“Events like that should disturb all Idahoans,” said House Speaker Scott Bedke, R-Oakley. “It certainly disturbed me.”

Senate President Pro Tem Brent Hill said: “To think that somebody is bold enough to have followed these children around with a sidearm in plain sight — who is also bold enough to go through trash cans, take pictures of representatives’ desks and shuffle their papers — all of that created a great deal of concern. Hill has urged lawmakers to be careful about what they leave on their desks, but he is also concerned about larger security issues. “What happens when six people come and sit in the front row of the gallery with shotguns across their laps?” Hill said. “I sure as heck am not going to leave my senators in there with that.””

And some quotes from the (as of this morning) pro-gun legislatures:But......what about freedom?