Kansas legislators gave
final approval Saturday to a bill that would nullify city and county gun
restrictions and ensure that it’s legal across the state to openly carry
firearms, a measure the leading gun rights lobbying group sees as a model for
stripping local officials of their gun-regulating power.
The House approved the legislation a day after the Senate passed
it. The measure goes next to Republican Gov. Sam Brownback. He hasn’t said
whether he’ll sign it, but he’s a strong supporter of gun rights and has signed
other measures backed by the National Rifle Association and the Kansas State
Rifle Association. The influential NRA is the nation’s leading gun rights
lobbying group.
Kansas law doesn’t expressly forbid the
open carrying of firearms, and the attorney general’s office has in the past
told local officials that some restrictions are allowed. The Unified Government
of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, has prohibited the practice, but
the bill would sweep any such ban away, except to allow cities and counties to
prevent openly carried weapons inside public buildings.
The measure also would prevent cities and
counties from enacting restrictions on the sale of firearms and ammunition, or
imposing rules on how guns must be stored and transported. Existing ordinances
would be void, and local government could not use tax dollars for gun buy-back
programs.
Supporters say a patchwork of local
regulations confuses gun owners and infringes upon gun-ownership rights
guaranteed by the state and U.S. constitutions. Opponents of the bill argue
that local officials know best what policies are appropriate for their
communities.
Both the NRA and the San Francisco-based
Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence say 43 states, including Kansas, already
significantly limit the ability of cities and counties to regulate firearms,
though they vary widely in how far they go. But an NRA lobbyist said this week
that this year’s legislation in Kansas would make that state a model on the
issue for gun-rights supporters.
Kansas last year enacted a law to allow
people with concealed-carry permits to bring their hidden weapons into public
buildings — including libraries and community centres — after 2017 unless local
officials post guards or set up metal detectors.
SOURCE: