I’m not bashing Kansas, but I am going to bash Kansas Republicans for the bill Governor Sam Brownback signed into law today, making it legal, starting in July, for any resident of Kansas to carry a concealed firearm legally without obtaining a permit and without any required training regarding firearm safety. Once again, Republicans lead the charge for unsafe, irrational gun laws.
(Reuters) – Kansas residents will be allowed to carry concealed weapons in the state without training or a permit starting in July under a bill signed into law on Thursday by Governor Sam Brownback.
Brownback, a Republican, said the new law will protect the rights of gun owners, while opponents said the measure poses safety risks.
“Responsible gun ownership – for protection and sport – is a right inherent in our Constitution,” Brownback said in a statement.
How does allowing people to carry concealed weapons without proper safety training further the goals of responsible gun ownership, other than in the minds of NRA extremists and knuckleheads like Brownback and his fellow Republicans in the Kansas state legislature? I sure don’t see it. Maybe someone can explain the reasoning behind this law, because to me it looks like pure pandering to NRA lobbyists and crazy people, not “responsible” gun owners.
To be fair to Kansas Republicans, they are not alone in their lunacy, at least according to Brownback’s office, which claims that Alaska, Wyoming, Arizona and Arkansas have passed similar laws, or are considering them (I hope any other state legislature considering such a law considers it a whole heck of a lot better than the idiots in the Kansas state legislature). Of course Brownback says he “encourages” all gun owners to take gun safety classes, but that’s pure hypocrisy in my view. If one can buy a firearm or carry it around, concealed or otherwise, without any legal requirement to learn how to maintain, handle and use their guns in a safe manner, how many people do you think are going to bother attending a firearms safety class?
In the meantime, this woman speaks for me:
Loren Stanton, president of the Kansas chapter of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, questioned the wisdom of making training voluntary for carrying a concealed weapon.
“There is no way that taking away training can make guns safer,” Stanton said.
She’s got that right.
I wonder how many requests for permits had been turned down in Kansas over the past couple years. Also, I have to wonder if all those people who make money off concealed carry classes are happy with this law, as well as what the police think of it.
this is insane
Correction: This is fucking insane.
Has anybody pointed out to them that this means any black person they meet in the state of Kansas could be armed?
Wait, is that actually the point?
The “Ah fear’d for mah life” state.
Florida – Stand Your Ground law
All of these changes in gun laws are not matters of sportsmen feeling inhibited by restrictions. They are motivated by people wanting to scare other people enough to goose gun sales.
How come no news outlet has investigated which states allow citizens to carry weapons (concealed or open) into the state legislature chambers.
My guess is that there are zero states that allow that.
But when it comes to your workplace, these panderers to the NRA are right on it.
Unfortunately, the Darwin Award maps only loosely to the beneficiaries of this bill. There will be collateral damage.
Kansas
link
What’s to prevent the police in Kansas from shooting first, and asking questions later?
I’m sure that police departments aren’t copacetic with this idiotic law.
Policing is dangerous enough already, without a bunch of untrained ammosexuals running around with concealed weapons on them.
Whatever happened to common sense?
Apparently, there’s no common sense in conservative echo-chambers.
Of course this move is consistent with the principle that all Republicans hold near and dear, that this country was founded on Christian values. For example, this one follows where Christ said “If someone smites you, turn the other cheek, then pull out your Glock and blast the motherf***er that smote you.”
Ranking in gun related deaths
xx.x=rate per 100K population
Free Carry States
1: Alaska 19.8
5: Arkansas 16.8
6: Wyoming 16.7
14: Arizona 14.1
37: Vermont 9.2
Strictest gun law states:
51: Hawaii 2.6
50: Mass 3.1
49: New York 4.2
46: New Jersey 5.7
43: California 7.7
Of course, facts have SUCH a liberal bias.
This state is in a death spiral at this point, too many of its citizens’ brains have been poisoned beyond functioning for it to return to sanity, let alone something as mundane as public safety. Enter at your own risk.
Kansas is now just a “Can you believe they did [insert lunacy here]!?” In other words, a true cutting-edge Red State—Bravo Brownback! I can see the tourism ads now—“Kansas: Visit the Conservative Paradise! Don’t forget yer gun, kids!”
WTF? I can’t drive a car without training and a permit. I seriously don’t understand this. . .
Just wait. The bank will need a swat team to repo a car.
This is one of several attempts in the states to do away with the least bit of regulation as to firearm carry. The GOP legislature in WV tried it and the Dem governor vetoed. Now to be clear, everyone in the state is armed to the teeth, but to do away with any safety training, licensing, and allowing people from other states to use their lic to carry in WV was too much. Law enforcement came out against it.
You have to know the history of feuds, mine wars, and just ordinary wildness to understand that there were, in the past, fairly restrictive carry laws. Since loosened.
Anyway, everyone I have spoken to in rural parts of the state had no use for the proposed law. They saw no need. If you want to legally carry, take the class and pay the fee. Its not like anyone’s right to firearms was being infringed. Hell, you can’t bump a car in a parking lot without guns falling out of the trunk.
R