A local news story out of the village of Severn, Maryland caught my attention this weekend because of its relationship to recently passed gun control legislation in the state. Maryland Governor Wes Moore signed a new gun control bill on Tuesday banning people from carrying firearms in schools and healthcare facilities or in places licensed to sell alcohol or cannabis. A 20-year-old resident named J’Den McAdory opposed the new law and decided to do something to protest it and raise awareness about safe, legal gun ownership. He began showing up at a school bus stop in his neighborhood openly carrying an AR-15-style rifle. This upset many of the locals who called the police, but they were informed that his actions were legal. (NPR)

The issue of gun control came to a head in Maryland after a man began regularly standing at a school bus stop with an AR-15-style rifle in his hands.

For the past few weeks, J’Den McAdory, 20, has been strolling around his neighborhood in Severn, Md., with a long gun in what he says is a protest against recent state gun control legislation.

Police say his actions are legal.

There may be people freaking out, but they really should be paying more attention to what McAdory was actually doing. (He stopped showing up at school bus stops after he was “kindly asked” by the school’s administrators.) He carried the rifle in a safe fashion with the barrel pointed toward the ground. He never aimed it at the children or anyone else, to say nothing of shooting anyone. He didn’t carry any protest signs or chant. He mostly just remained silent and kept to himself.

McAdory told a local news station that “guns can be safe” in the right hands. He also said that he wanted to demonstrate that what he was doing was legal.

If there is a lesson to be taken away from this event, residents should look at what the actual result was. J’Den McAdory never harmed or even threatened anyone. And if there had been anyone considering coming by and shooting up that bus stop, they would likely have thought twice once they saw him on the scene. Also, the police were there frequently as a result of concerns raised by residents. Ironically, for a brief time at least, McAdory probably turned that bus stop and the surrounding neighborhood into one of the safest school-adjacent locations in the country.

The future of the law that McAdory was protesting is unclear. It certainly seems to run afoul of some constitutional issues and the NRA has already filed a lawsuit to block it. Maryland has clearly failed to learn from previous mass shootings around the country because they’re seeking to turn all of the schools into gun-free zones. But that’s precisely why maniacs attack schools. It’s easier and safer when there is nobody there who is armed and able to fire back. Perhaps J’Den McAdory will play a small role in making that message sink in.