What is it with these people and their guns?

Concealed-carry gun permits let holders bypass Texas Capitol's metal detectors

By Associated Press 

 

 

AUSTIN, Texas - Everyone from lobbyists to lawyers and journalists is rushing to get permits to carry guns inside the Texas Capitol, where legislators already often tote pistols in boots and purses or stow them away inside their desks.
A unique loophole in a new security procedure means a gun permit is like a special-access pass into the domed building, allowing people who are certified to carry a gun to bypass lines at the metal detectors that were set up after a shooting incident earlier this year.

So, they set up metal detectors after a shooting, presumably to prevent future shootings, but if you definitely do have a gun, you can just go right on through? How does that make any sense?
And why would you need to carry a gun into the State Capitol building? Isn't that one of the safest places you could be? Isn't it already well-guarded by trained law-enforcement personnel?

I don't get the whole concealed-carry fetish anyway. If I were walking around with a shootin' iron in my belt, I'd damn sure want people to see it. I would want muggers to take one look at me and say "not him, he's got a six-shooter!" Why would I want to pretend that I was unarmed? Do these people hope that criminals will try to attack them so that they can then pull their guns and go all Bernie Goetz on them? Okay, I probably just answered my own question.