If you believe the Left, Kansas is set to implode in a rage of violence and bloodshed starting July 1st when a provision put place by the legislature four years ago goes into effect.
According to Leftist fear mongers, this provision will squelch free speech on campuses everywhere. Students will be afraid to speak due to the threat of violence from fellow students. Teachers will fear giving someone a bad grade because of the sheer violence that will befall them. Professors will no longer find refuge in their offices and are being forced to change their office hours or become unavailable altogether - some have even sought refuge in other states. Others have decided to stop teaching and are seeking alternative pursuits like research. One or two have opted for retirement.
Dark days are ahead for Kansas.
What could bring on such fear?
In 2013, the Kansas legislature passed a law requiring that local municipalities and buildings owned by the state either have adequate security preventing the carrying of guns inside the property or require that citizens be allowed to carry concealed firearms on such properties. It’s a simple concept, either allow citizens to defend themselves, or provide adequate security. These properties were allowed an exemption from concealed carry for four years, giving them enough time to make plans for proper security measures to be installed. Yes, you read that right. They had four years.
Although there is no single place to go for definitive numbers, the grand total of those who have made public announcements about their leaving state universities because of the concealed carry law is around a half-dozen. An article from the Manhattan Mercury, where Kansas State University is located, listed three academic staff and one other employee. At Kansas University, Jacob Dornan made a big splash with his announcement in March. At Wichita State, Deborah Ballard-Reisch announced her resignation blaming concealed carry on campus. That’s a confirmed five out of around 5,800 academic staff in the six state universities - hardly a mass exodus, especially considering several were of retirement age anyway.
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Concealed carry on college campuses is allowed in ten states, the longest standing being Utah where students have been allowed to carry since 2004. In thirteen years, there should be plenty of incidents where hostile students confronted others with guns, or situations where the presence of guns has squelched free speech. Or how (insert emotional argument here) has happened. One can search for hours to try and find such incidents and will find nothing of substance. No injuries, no blood in the streets, no students confronting teachers over a bad grade. Nothing. Interestingly enough, there were no mass shootings on campuses that allowed concealed carry either. Hmmmm.
Using the "logic" from the Left, it should be easy to find instances in Kansas where their claims have materialized. Since some municipalities chose not to participate in the exemption, many municipal buildings have allowed concealed carry holders inside state and county owned buildings for the past four years. In that time- frame, there should be plenty of instances where angry confrontational gun owners pointed their pistols at frantic clerks over a driver’s license issue or a property tax problem. Surely, one can find a multitude of instances where these hotheads took their guns out of holsters and threatened innocent government workers. Can you guess how many thousands of times this has happened? Hundreds? Scores? Dozens? A handful? Any? That’s right, zero is the number. At least this author couldn’t find one, if it did happen.
Despite all the fear mongering from the Left, Kansas citizens and students will be safer starting July 1, and the sensational, emotional arguments from Leftists will be found to be without merit...again.
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