Kansas Senate rejects changing date for allowing concealed guns on campus

The Kansas Senate rejected two proposals to change the date when public universities would be required to allow concealed firearms onto campus.

Under current law universities must allow concealed firearms beginning in July 2017.

The first amendment would have allowed universities to keep concealed firearms off campus until July 2021. The second amendment would have moved the implementation date up to July 2016.

Both measures failed.

Sen. Jeff Longbine, R-Emporia, brought the first amendment during a vote on SB 65, a bill which will prohibit public employers from restricting public employees from carrying concealed firearms while they’re off-site but on duty. The overall bill passed by a voice vote after more than two hours of debate. It later passed 32-7 in final action.

Longbine’s amendment was a response to opposition from university professors and students against the prospect of allowing concealed firearms on campus is 2017 – as they will be required to do under current law.

The amendment was defeated by a vote of 26-11.

Longbine cited a recent study by Fort Hays State University that found that 69 percent of students surveyed either wanted the law repealed or implementation delayed.

Sen. Forrest Knox, R-Altoona, the lawmaker who carried the underlying bill, strongly objected to Longbine’s amendment.

“What we’re talking about here is trusting Kansas citizens. … There’s a constitutional right to keep and bear arms,” Knox said.

Longbine held up the survey and said that there were 25,500 students who haven’t reached that level of trust.

“Will parents decide that maybe another state, another university is a better place for their child to go to school?” Longbine said.

He said he was not asking for a repeal of concealed carry in public spaces, but was seeking an extra four years to build that trust before it was implemented on college campus.

About an hour later Sen. Michael O’Donnell, R-Wichita, brought an amendment to speed up the implementation date by a year. It was rejected by a vote of 25-14.

“We just want Kansans to be safe and there’s no reason to put that off another year,” O’Donnell said.

He said that universities had three years to come up with an implementation plan, but lawmakers from both parties saw the change as unfair.

Sen. Les Donovan, R-Wichita, rebuked O’Donnell for trying to change the deadline “out of the clouds” and said that he could not support the measure despite his long history of supporting gun rights.

Knox’s underlying bill would enable public employees to carry concealed weapons when they’re off site. He said he crafted the legislation in response to complaints from an employee of the Kansas Department of Revenue, who is able to carry a weapon at his state office building in Topeka under current law, but restricted from carrying a weapon when he goes off site.

Democrats argued that Knox’s bill would lead to unintended consequences by enabling public employees who aren’t law enforcement officers to carry concealed weapons onto private properties.

“I think we’re heading down a very dangerous path,” said Sen. Tom Holland, D-Baldwin City, who said the bill would enable a city code inspector to enter your home with a concealed weapon.

“What happens if they see dogs on the property?” Holland asked, posing a hypothetical scenario where a public employee would feel threatened by a person’s pit bulls and perhaps shoot in self defense.

A Democratic amendment to require training by the Kansas Highway Patrol before a public employee could carry weapons on the job failed to pass on a voice vote.

Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau, D-Wichita, pressed Knox on whether public utilities would be required to inform people before an inspector, for example, came to inspect your meter while carrying a gun.

Knox said that homeowners have the right to post signs forbidding guns on their property, but said otherwise “your use of a firearm on the job is your own responsibility.”

“I don’t share the concern that a public employee will misuse his gun, but I certainly think that he’s responsible in that case,” Knox said. “If I were reading a meter and the Senator from Sedgwick’s pit bull was attacking me I might have to shoot it.”

Faust-Goudeau responded that she doesn’t own a pit bull and said that her concern was that a homeowner could get shot.

Knox responded that he would attend Faust-Goudeau’s funeral if that happened to her.

“I like to joke, but this is serious,” Faust-Goudeau said. She said that many Wichitans have expressed concern about the policy and told Knox to take their concerns more seriously.

This story was originally published February 11, 2016 at 6:33 PM with the headline "Kansas Senate rejects changing date for allowing concealed guns on campus."