Thursday, January 19, 2012

The Kansas legislature is taking up a measure that would change the state's concealed carry law. Wichita and Sedgwick County have already loosened gun restrictions on public-owned buildings. Now, it appears the state will soon follow.

City Hall in Wichita is crawling with police officers. Security at the door makes everyone go through metal detectors and X-rays. But across the state, many city or state-run buildings aren't as tightly locked down.

"It's a constitutional issue at the end of the day," said Wichita City Council Member Michael O'Donnell.

O'Donnell fought to allow citizens to carry guns legally in more public-owned places within the city.

"It's our right guaranteed in the Constitution," O'Donnell said. "The City of Wichita should not be able to dictate if we abide by that Constitution or the Kansas Constitution. We should conform to that."

At Wichita's City Hall, there is security on the premises already, making sure there are no guns allowed in the building. Because of that, this new state law - if passed - would allow them to keep their no gun sign up.

Rep. Forrest Knox, (R) Altoona, has presented a bill to the state legislature that would amend the concealed carry law. If publicly-owned buildings don't provide their own security, they would have to remove their 'no gun' signs.

"You have an open invitation for somebody to come in and do harm because they know there's not law enforcement there," Knox said. "They know there is not security there and they know there is a sign that's making everybody that has a conceal carry license leave their weapons in their cars."

Knox has also included publicly-owned college campuses on the list of areas that would have to take their guns signs down. He argues that some of the school shootings in our country's recent past may not have escalated as much as they did if nearby law-abiding staff or students had guns.

"In America, we don't really want to have police everywhere; always looking over our shoulders," Knox said. "We want to have the liberties that were guaranteed to us by the Constitution. One of those liberties is the right to own and bear arms."

The Kansas House in Topeka will hear arguments next week regarding these changes.

The state passed the original concealed carry law in July of 2006. The first licenses were handed out in 2007. Last August, Sedgwick County revised its resolution to allow license holders to carry guns in nearly half of all county-owned buildings. Just last month, Wichita followed suit, allowing concealed carry owners to carry guns in more than 100 city-owned buildings.