KS:Constitutional Carry set to Pass Kansas Senate

SB 45 allows those who may legally own a gun to carry it concealed, without a permit.   The bill has 26 co-sponsors.  Only 21 senate votes are needed for passage.

The bill changes a number of laws, but the primary effect is to reform the law by removing the requirement to have a concealed carry license in  order to legally carry a handgun concealed.  People in Kansas already have the right to carry handguns openly.

From the text of the bill(pdf):

(5) possession of a concealed handgun by an individual who is
licensed by the attorney general to carry a concealed handgun under
K.S.A. 2014 Supp. 75-7c01 et seq., and amendments thereto not
prohibited from possessing a firearm under either federal or state law.

If the law passes both the Senate and the House, as seems likely, the question will be, will Governor Brownback sign it.   It seems likely as well.  In 2013 Governor Brownback signed the Kansas law to stop state and local officials from enforcing Federal gun laws that infringe on second amendment rights.  From the tenthamendmentcenter.com:

TOPEKA, KS (April 16, 2013) – Today, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback signed into law Senate Bill 102 (SB102), formerly HB2199 – the 2nd Amendment Protection Act. In the wake of increased federal interest in restricting the right to keep and bear arms, the new Kansas law is the most comprehensive nullification of such acts thus far.

The new law nullifies a wide range of federal attacks on the right to keep and bear arms in the State of Kansas. It states, in part:

Any act, law, treaty, order, rule or regulation of the government of the United States which violates the second amendment to the constitution of the United States is null, void and unenforceable in the state of Kansas

 Much has to happen before SB 45 reaches Governor Brownback's desk, but it seems that the bill has a fair chance of passage.  States that have already enacted such reforms, including Alaska, Arizona, Wyoming, Arkansas, and, as considered by some observers, most of Montana, have not observed any negative effects from the change in the law.  Concealed carry laws were enacted primarily for two reasons.  First, to keep black people from carrying weapons; such as in the South before the Civil War or War between the States if you prefer, then for the same purpose after the war, where the prohibition spread to Northern states, and second, to protect organized crime, as was done with the Sullivan act in New York.   

An excuse had to be ginned up to give bans on both open and concealed carry some sort of constitutional plausibility.   It is a difficult task, as the plain language of the Constitution says that "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."   So the present participle of the amendment, "A well regulated militia being necessary to a free state" was offered up as a reason to neuter the right of the people.   This was done for the first time in a court ruling, in Kansas in 1905, as the progressive movement gained power. 

Now Kansas is again in the forefront of political thought, moving away from the failed policies of progressivism, and restoring rights imprudently infringed upon.


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