CONCEALED WEAPONS VOTE ON MONDAY AFTERNOON

[Big Unit]

Please contact your House legislators - including Tom Holland and Anthony Brown from Douglas Cty, and most importantly legislators from the KC area like Ruiz and Peterson - and ask them to vote against SB 418 - the concealed weapons in public bill.

You can send an email just by using an address that puts their last name in front of "@house.state.ks.us" (without the quotation marks of course). Tell these legislators that there are 4 safety problems with this bill: (1) reciprocity - we don't want concealed weapons carriers from all across the country bringing into Kansas their hidden guns without having first to notify the KBI); (2) "May" issue vs. "Shall" issue - the licensing authority should be able to refuse to issue a license to someone who might be a known danger to law enforcement but who still would qualify for a permit - like Dennis Rader the BTK killer, or a member of the KKK; (3) too lenient penalties for carrying a concealed weapon while drunk - SB 418 does not impose stiffer penalties for multiple offenses, and has no license revocation penalty; and (4) lackluster gun safety training provisions - only 8 hours are required, and that is barely enough time to learn how to shoot straight let alone learn how to make good decisions about whether to pull the trigger or not in an emergency.

House members are getting lots of disinformation. They are being told that the Wild Wild West has not been unleashed in those states that have passed these laws, but the truth is that we don't know the facts because other states don't require law enforcement to track the incidence of crimes commited by CW licensees. The Violence Policy Center (www.vpc.org) has proven that thousands of CW licensees commit crimes based on Texas stats (until the Texas law was amended to keep the data from being analysed by VPC). House members are being told that the Senate already has enough votes to kill a veto override attempt, so they may as well vote YES and protect themselves from the NRA backlash, but this isn't a certainty either. House members should be told that their NO vote is important becausethe the Governor needs to know that this bill will not have enough votes in the House to override. If she isn't confident of her veto being sustained in both chambers, she might allow the bill to become law without her signature.

The fact that Kansas is only one of 4 states without a CW law is one OF THE GOOD THINGS ABOUT OUR HOME STATE. Let's not give it up just because we are tired of fighting this battle every session.

[Mabus]

1. Thanks for the head's up

I guess it is finally time to fix my e-mail. Consider it done.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. Done

There are a few issues I feel very strongly about and CCW is one of them. I am a teacher. My concern is kids getting their hands on weapons. We have far too many 'accidental' shootings without CCW.