Back in the idyllic days before mass shootings were as commonplace as going to the store, there was chatter from time to time about installing metal detectors in the “People’s House,” aka the Michigan state Capitol building.

And each time the safety issue was raised, it was summarily rejected, because everyone knows there are no devices to screen guns at people’s homes.

Ah, but to have those more tranquil days once again.

Last week, the harsh reality of gun violence hung over the discussion at the State Capitol Commission like an ugly storm cloud. And, when the clouds broke, the body voted six-to-zero to request bids for devices to keep firearms out of the building.

The intent, of course, is to protect lawmakers, staffers, and the media inside, but also to keep out of harm’s way the 100,000-plus schoolkids and parents who get a day off school to watch the sausage being made in Lansing.

The former vice chair of the commission notes that, when the talks about protecting the Capitol got more serious a year or so ago, there were major concerns about the long lines that would follow the installation of metal detectors, much like what happens at your local airport.

“The technology has changed,” John Truscott reports, now making it a relative piece of cake to process folks coming into the building.

“It’s like going to Target,” he said. “You pass through these devices on either side (and) people walk through at normal speed and, if it detects, it will go off if somebody has a weapon on them and the technology will help law enforcement to know who has the weapon and where it is.”

The intent is to have one of those gizmos at the five entrances into the building, each with an officer assigned to respond to any alarms that go off.

In addition, as an extra measure of security, the commission is asking for bids on an artificial intelligence detection system that entails placing cameras in all areas of the Capitol. That would require somebody to monitor those pictures for any gun carriers who might have slipped through the gun detectors at the doors.

You’re beginning to think, “This sounds pretty expensive.”

Only if you consider millions to be expensive.

“Given the staffing, equipment, and the maintaining of that equipment, you are probably looking at $5 million,” Truscott indicates.

And many will argue that is worth it when you consider what a mass shooting inside the “People’s House” might look like.

State Rep. Luke Meerman, R-Coopersville, however, is not one of those.

After the mass murders at Oxford High School in Oakland County, Meerman chaired a bipartisan panel on making schools safer, and, having learned of the latest gambit to install detectors where he works, he explains: “This is not the way to go about keeping us safe.”

He fears it would turn the Capitol into a “fortress, (and) that isn’t what we want our kids to experience. We don’t put those things outside our schools.”

The pro-gun lawmaker will be part of an effort to block the Capitol metal detector project if he can find a way to do it. It is unclear if legislators can vote on the project, given the power the Capitol Commission has to run the day-to-day operations of the Capitol.

So stand by for another debate about gun violence in a building where the occupants are no stranger to that.