Kansas considers preemption bill
By Bob Owens on January 30th, 2014
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I'm sure there have to be some bad ones out there somewhere, but so far, I haven't seen any state-level preemption laws cutting through the morass of local gun ordinances that were anything other than the sort of "common sense" gun laws that citizen control cultists always claim to be for, except when they actually make sense:
Kansas legislators are considering new gun-rights proposals to strip cities and counties of any power to regulate guns and limit local programs to buy guns back from their owners.
The House Federal and State Affairs Committee scheduled a Thursdaymorning hearing on a sweeping bill containing the new measures.
The bill would prohibit cities and counties from enacting bans on the open carrying of firearms and prevent them from spending tax dollars to administer firearms buyback programs. Besides stripping cities and counties of the power to set gun policies, the bill declares existing ordinances void.
The purpose of the law is to make sure that otherwise legal gun owners traveling in Kansas aren't ensnared by archaic and idiosyncratic local perversities leveled against the right to bear arms.
Part of the bill requires that gun buyback programs "pay their own way," and get support from individuals, private organizations, or charities. Gun buyback programs generally only collect junk long guns that have no commercial value and are generally non-functional, and are not commonly used in crimes. Guns that have value are pawned, sold, or put on consignment at gun shops. This part of the legislation assure taxpayers they they aren't having to pay for these programs, which are thought to be ineffective, feel-good measures that merely provide the illusion of "doing something."
Author: Bob Owens
Bob Owens is the Editor of BearingArms.com. A long-time shooting enthusiast, he began blogging as a North Carolina native in New York at the politics-focused Confederate Yankee in 2004. In 2007 Bob began writing about firearms, gun rights, and crime at Pajamas Media, and added gun and gear reviews for Shooting Illustrated in 2010. He is a volunteer in the Appleseed Project, where he shares stories of our shared American heritage and teaches traditional rifle marksmanship. His personal blog is bob-owens.com, and he can be found on Twitter at bob_owens.