Back in June 2016, Lawrence, Kansas, announced that it was abandoning its plan to equip its public buildings with detectors that state law required in order to prohibit concealed firearms.

In Kansas, the “Personal and Family Protection Act” passed in 2013. The Personal and Family Protection Act allows concealed weapons in public buildings that don’t contain metal detectors and guards. While things were being worked out, the law allowed cities to deny concealed carry for a maximum of four years while they worked on compliance. Money was entered into the budget to allow for the purchase of metal detectors, metal detector wands and baggage screening machines for four of the city’s most-used public buildings: City Hall, Lawrence Municipal Court, Lawrence Public Library and the police department building. Ultimately, that line item was removed from the budget due to not being able to afford it.

Now, unless the city pays to have metal detectors and guards at the entrances of about 50 public buildings, those buildings will have to allow concealed firearms once a new state law goes into effect. At this point, it seems obvious that state and local officials don’t have a clue what to do.

We’ve reported on the University of Kansas, which is preparing for the law to take effect. Part of the problem is that has been debate about what exactly was the time frame of the exemption period. The University of Kansas believes the law will take effect July 2017. The state’s legal teams, however, are preparing for the law to take effect January 2018.

The city is now talking about consolidating some of its public buildings to save on the expense of putting in these detecting machines. Hope they get it worked out soon. Or, they could just allow guns. Hmmm, wonder what is the easier decision.