Kansas Universities Mull Over Concealed Carry

Published August 23, 2015

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By Dean Weingarter via TheTruthAboutGuns.com

In 2012, Kansas reformed its concealed carry law. People exercising their Second Amendment rights would no longer be excluded from public buildings, unless the building took active measures to insure that armed criminals would also be excluded. Active measure included guards and metal detectors on entrances. From kansan.com . . .

The law would allow the University to secure the campus against guns by using metal detectors and guards, but it would cost more than $20 million to secure all 237 campus buildings, according to a 2013 report that the University gave to the Board of Regents.

If the University did not implement that security, anyone would be able to bring a concealed gun into any University building at any time.

The Kansan is a university newspaper; still I think that even a student writer would understand the irony of that statement. It’s a truism. If you do not have protective measures in place, anyone could bring a concealed gun into any university building. What the law changes: people who are legally carrying guns, would no longer be subject to prosecution for doing so in areas on universities that are unsecured. The law does away with numerous illusory “gun free zones”.

A task force is being formed to educate people on campus to deal with the changes in the law. It appears that one of the major concerns is to prevent the “swatting” of people legally carrying firearms. In discussions about people exercising Second Amendment rights, anti-gunners often suggest that police be called, and the danger to the public be lied about and enhanced. Some hope to start a gunfight between legal carriers and police. From the Kansan:

“We’ll discuss what it will mean for the University and how to best deal with the situations that may arise so that no one calls 911 every time they see a gun because we can’t learn and work in those conditions,” Williams said.

This is a good item to focus on. There are seven other states that allow concealed carry on campus. There have not been any significant problems in those states.

Kansas law already prevents local governments from prosecuting legally armed people for openly carrying firearms. The law allows local units of government to ban openly carried firearms from buildings if proper signage is posted; but no criminal penalties are allowed. From kslegislature.org:

(c) It shall be a violation of this section to carry an unconcealed firearm if the building is posted in accordance with rules and regulations adopted by the attorney general pursuant to subsection (d). Any person who violates this section shall not be subject to a criminal penalty but may be subject to denial to such premises or removal from such premises.

It appears that it is already legal to openly carry firearms on Kansas universities, as long as they are not carried into buildings that have the proper signage. I have not seen any stories of disruptions of Kansas places of higher education due to the presence of firearms. Perhaps the task force will not face such a difficult problem after all.