Republican lawmakers in the Kansas House and Senate caved to Michael Bloomberg-funded gun control groups and voted to water down the Kansas campus carry law.
The Senators voted on Thursday to exempt public mental health and hospital facilities from the campus carry law. The facilities were included initially because they are “public,” which means they enjoy tax-payer funding. The campus carry law was written so to ensure that the law-abiding citizens paying for the facilities could also exercise their constitutional rights while inside them.
The NRA opposed the move to water down the campus carry bill, but Sen. Jim Denning (R-Overland Park) made clear that he had no problem breaking with the NRA on this one. The Lawrence Journal-World quoted Denning saying, “[Let the hospitals] have their stickers on the door if it makes the folks who work there want to work there. It’s about health care. It’s really not about anything more than that. It’s working fine.”
Denning did not mention the fact that locations like Orlando Pulse (June 12, 2016), Umpqua Community College (October 1, 2015), the Chattanooga Military offices (July 16, 2015), the DC Navy Yard (September 16, 2013), Sandy Hook Elementary (December 14, 2012), and others had “stickers on their door” or policies in place that barred law-abiding citizens from being armed for self-defense as well.
Senate President Susan Wagle (R-Wichita) tried to protect the campus carry bill by offering an NRA-backed compromise that would only declare “patient-care areas” gun-free. Her colleagues rejected the compromise.
The Kansas Topeka-Journal reports that Sen. Vicki Schmidt (R-Topeka) was fervent in her opposition to the NRA compromise. Schmidt said, “Word choice is very important. You believe that this is a compromise, this NRA language? A compromise usually means two parties are involved. In this case, it’s not a compromise because this is the NRA language. But they didn’t compromise with anyone.”
And when pro-gun Republican lawmakers suggested that Gov. Sam Brownback (R) would not sign any bill that lacked the NRA language, Sen. Barbara Bollier (R-Mission Hills) replied, “I refuse to be held hostage by the governor’s pen.”
The legislation to water down campus carry was “ushered through” the voting process by Sen. Carolyn McGinn (R-Sedgwick).
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart leNews and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.