We’ve been following the saga in Kansas over the changes they’re trying to make to their gun laws. It was unclear whether or not Governor Sam Brownback, a Republican, would veto a far-reaching bill they’ve been considering: the “Personal and Family Protection Act.”
It was believed that Brownback WOULD veto the bill, even though the House voted 91-33 in June to approve the measure and the Senate approved it 24-16. The law allows for a ban on concealed guns inside state hospitals, public hospitals and nursing homes and medical care clinics even if they do not have the expensive security upgrades originally required in a previous law. The ban would extend to university-run medical centers that are part of the University of Kansas Health System and the Kansas University’s medical school clinic. The bill is now law.
The governor has in the past been a gun-rights ally. His action to allow the gun bill to become law was not expected. The bill was in response to a 2013 state law requiring public buildings to allow concealed guns IF those buildings lacked security such as guards or metal detectors. What ensued has been a comedy of line items to fund extra security in buildings so they wouldn’t have to allow guns to be added to budgets and then removed because there was no money. Universities and public health facilities received a four-year exemption to the law allowing concealed guns in these facilities, which was set to expire July 1.
The governor is believed to have bowed to intense political pressure from the hospital system, which opposed the law. He apparently was conflicted about it, given a statement he made criticizing the bill for restricting gun-owners’ rights at public health facilities, forcing them “to subject themselves to greater risk while giving up their right to protect themselves.”
“Because I support the effort to provide state mental hospitals authority to restrict concealed carry in certain facilities, I will not exercise my constitutional authority to veto this bill,” Brownback wrote in his message.
