HELENA (AP) — In the past year, insurrectionists have breached the U.S. Capitol and armed protesters have forced their way into statehouses around the country. But the question of whether guns should be allowed in capitol buildings remains political, and states are going in opposite directions.
In Montana, a new state law signed Thursday allows anyone with a permit to bring a concealed firearm into the statehouse, reversing a decades-long policy banning guns inside the Capitol and fulfilling a longtime hope of Republicans who took control of the governor’s mansion as well as the Legislature this year. GOP-dominated Utah passed a law this month allowing people to carry concealed weapons into its Capitol building and elsewhere in the state without a permit.