OPINION: Colts in the middle of a Wild West gun battle

INDIANAPOLIS — Reporting from the Indiana Statehouse can sometimes be tedious business, with all the procedural maneuvering and political intrigue.

It’s hard to navigate your way through all the rhetoric to determine what’s real. So many of the pieces of legislation come with a sales job — the spin that bill supporters put on a bill to slide it through.

So it’s interesting to see what happens when the spin slides off course.

Case in point: The “pre-emption” gun bill that sailed through the state Senate this past week, spun as a simple piece of legislation that would clean up what supporters called a “patchwork” of gun laws across the state.

More simply put, it would outlaw local units of government from restricting firearms and ammunition. With a very few exceptions, local units of government could no longer keep guns out of their parks, playgrounds and public buildings.

The sweeping language of the bill alarmed State Sen. Tim Lanane, a Democrat from Anderson, who considers himself a supporter of Second Amendment gun rights. But as Lanane argued on the Senate floor, he also believes there should “reasonable limits.”

Lanane was swiftly slapped down by bill supporters who have the backing of the NRA, a powerful gun-rights lobby.

“It’ll take somebody big to stop this,” Lanane said. “I’m not convinced that opposition from every mayor and city council in the state could halt this.”

Maybe not, but now those mayors and city councils have a big ally in the fight: Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay. He sent out a “tweet” on the social media site Twitter, declaring his opposition to the bill. That was followed up by an unequivocal statement from the Colts bashing the bill.

Why? Because the Colts’ home venue, Lucas Oil Stadium — which is also the site of the 2012 Super Bowl — is owned by a local unit of government that would fall under the proposed law.

I’m guessing the Colts’ feared scenario involves their very expensive quarterback, Peyton Manning, and some perturbed pistol-packing fans.

The bill is now in the House, where it’s likely to get a sympathetic hearing from legislators who’ve supported NRA-backed bills in the past. Plus, the heat is on: The NRA sent out a legislative alert to its members after the bill cleared the Senate, urging them to press House members to pass the bill without any amendments.

But Irsay is armed with his own form of ammunition: All the free tickets that the Colts organization gives away every year to state legislators.

It’ll be interesting to see how this scenario spins out.