We have 3 outstanding and very important bills that need to be done before the current session adjourns. Multiple legislators assured us for weeks now that they would find a way to conference these 3 bills and get them to the floor of both chambers for a vote. For reasons I will not go in to, which have absolutely nothing to do with KSRA or gun bills in general, the Chairman of the House Federal and State Affairs Committee, Rep. Steve Brunk is blocking these bills from being conferenced. Your IMMEDIATE ACTION is needed!

HB 2074 Summary:

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an important provision that should have been placed in the 2013 bill was missed and a section of K.S.A. 21-6309 was not repealed as it should have been so it left accidentally carrying in a public building as a crime.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. This bill sets the qualifiers back to where they were prior to July 1, 2014.

HB 2087 Summary:

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.

SB 65 Summary:

SB 65 simply allows public employees (city, county, state-municipalities) who are allowed to carry in the buildings where they work, to also carry when they are driving a city, county or state owned vehicle or are away from the office out in the public domain performing the duties of their job. It prevents those public employers from prohibiting those public employees from doing so.