HB 2074 and HB 2087 both passed out of the House committee on Friday of last week and now move on to the full House chamber to be scheduled for a vote. If they pass they will move to the Senate committee for a hearing.

HB 2074 is a cleanup bill needed to reconcile some issues created in legislation from 2013 and 2014.

In 2013 we decriminalized accidentally going into a building that's posted with the no concealed carry sign. The clear intent was for that decriminalization to apply to both public and private buildings. Unfortunately an important provision that should have been placed in the 2013 bill was missed and a section of K.S.A. 21-6309 was not repealed as it should have been so it left accidentally carrying in a public building as a crime. This bill fixes that.

The other measure in this bill concerns the qualifications for obtaining a concealed carry permit. In 2009 the legislature determined that if someone met the federal and state guidelines for purchasing and possessing a firearm they should be afforded the right to carry the firearm. That measure was supported by both the KSRA and the NRA. To our knowledge there haven't been any incidents that would suggest that was unwise or not restrictive enough. Then in 2014 an ill-advised amendment was placed in HB 2578 and enacted making those qualifications stricter than existing federal or state law. The result was that some citizens who had committed minor crimes as juveniles but had clean records since becoming adults had their concealed carry permit revoked. It also resulted in nullifying the 5 and 10 year forgiveness rules where someone can purchase and possess after those terms expire but could still not obtain a concealed carry permit.

We had some pretty upset members who had their permits revoked. Those folks had taken the time and sustained the expense of obtaining a permit and possessed it for several years without incident. Punishing people who made bad decisions as children doesn't seem fair or logical. And prohibiting carry when purchase and possession is lawful also doesn't seem reasonable. It seems only right to rectify this issue and set the rules back to their pre-July 1, 2014 condition. The qualifiers had been working with no problem for 5 years and we see no reason for that to change. We're asking the legislature to reset these qualifications back to where they belong and restore the right to carry a firearm to those individuals. It is notable that these same individuals have a right to open carry and it seems like an oxymoron to say they can open carry but can't obtain a permit to carry concealed. This bill is supported by the KSRA and the NRA.

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HB 2087 is a cleanup measure from HB 2578 passed last year. A measure contained in HB 2578 was intended to protect federally licensed firearms dealers (FFL's), particularly those working from their homes, from being over regulated or prohibited by individual local jurisdictions. FFL's are very strictly regulated by the ATF and shouldn't be further restricted by local jurisdictions. The meat of last year's bill was all about preempting local control and the provision written regarding FFL's was clearly intended to give them the same protection. Unfortunately the wording in that provision didn't accomplish the intended outcome and in fact opened these FFL's up to local jurisdictional control.

As it turns out that provision didn't need to be placed in the bill at all because statute already provided the needed protections. So we're simply asking that the section pertaining to this be repealed and removed from the existing statute. Then adding the words commerce and fee should cover all the bases. Adding the word "fee" was part of today's committee meeting discussion so it will be an amendment when the committee works the bill.

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There is one amendment that has been drafted for HB 2087 that we support as follows:

The Committee on Federal and State Affairs recommends HB 2087 be amended on page 1, in line 8, after "governing" by inserting "the requirement of fees, licenses or permits for,"; in line 28, by striking "or"; in line 31, after "duties" by inserting "; or (4) prohibit a city or county from levying and collecting any retailers' sales tax on the sale of firearms, ammunition or any component or combination thereof as authorized by K.S.A. 12-189, and amendments thereto"; and the bill be passed as amended.