The City Wants to Pass its own Gun Laws

[Value Pack]

You're walking down a deserted street with your wife and two small children. Suddenly, an Islamic Terrorist with a huge knife comes around the corner, locks eyes with you, screams obscenities, praises Allah, raises the knife, and charges at you.

Interestingly, there is another side to this story. Given a choice of targets, I do believe the Islamic Terrorist would pick the Democrat as Democrats are everything that they hate about America.

Hardly seems fair. What democrats hold near and dear to the heart, Islam hates.

Back to the point, does anyone have reports on last nights meeting and what went on first hand?

[Bubba]

I got my email respose from Sen. Huelskamp this morning. By what he wrote to me it appears that the matter was tabled. Here is what he emailed me.


Dear Bubba(not the actual name I coresponded with),

I visited with Sen. Journey yesterday and am supportive of his proposed
legislation. However, most what cities are currently pushing is already not
allowed under our law. (I will post Sen. Journey's recent letter indicating
that fact.)

I understand Dodge City tabled the issue last night. That's a good sign.

Sincerely,
Senator Tim Huelskamp


Then he included the same letter from Sen. Journey that Tee already posted, so I won't post it again.

[TexKan]

well then that's good news----------- for now - seems since everyone is so passionate bout this - that perhaps the city is listening?............naw - they are waintin till nobody is lookin like someone else said......... gee I wonder if that's how we got our restrictions????......... hell too late now......... but like the other post said........ bang bang bang, reload........ did ya get em??........ etc........ that's the south - we don't worry much bout all the protocol for the most part......... but I can see why ya'll do.

[Bubba]

Senate Bill 418 is what became the CCH law in Kansas by what I have read, and I just found this interesting bit in section 17 of Senate Bill 418.

Any city ordinance or county resolution that
regulates, restricts or prohibits the carrying of concealed weapons shall
not be applicable to any person licensed in accordance with the provisions
of this act.

[TexKan]

Well then I would let them pass, post, and generally pizz on themselves......... wait for the ticket and then have a good attorney and a close bank!!..............

[lurker]

Originally Posted by Bubba

Senate Bill 418 is what became the CCH law in Kansas by what I have read, and I just found this interesting bit in section 17 of Senate Bill 418.

Any city ordinance or county resolution that
regulates, restricts or prohibits the carrying of concealed weapons shall
not be applicable to any person licensed in accordance with the provisions
of this act.

Welp Bubba, GOOD FIND.

Thanks for posting it. Can you provide a link?

[Bubba]

Here is the link...

www.handgunlaw.us/documents/KansasLaw.pdf


Section 17 is on page 11 and that particular wording is in paragraph (a) of Sec. 17.

[Value Pack]

Guns still an issue in modern-day Dodge City
By Bill Draper - Associated Press Writer

Sunday, March 7, 2004

Dodge City — In the days when Wyatt Earp was making his name as a lawman in Dodge City, he banned guns north of the railroad tracks that ran through the frontier town, where most families lived.

Cowboys had to check their weapons at a gate or saloon, and the city imposed a $100 fine for anyone caught with a gun north of the tracks.

That was 1878, and the identification of Dodge City with those Wild West times now pulls tens of thousands of tourists to the town in far western Kansas every year.

Thanks to the Kansas Legislature, guns still are on people's minds, at the police station, the Working Man's Guns shop and the Bad Habit sports bar.

More than 125 years after guns were banned in the Dodge City of Earp's day, state legislators are considering a bill that would allow Kansans to carry concealed weapons. Dodge City's top lawman in 2004 dislikes the idea enough that he already has talked to other local officials about finding a way to ban concealed weapons in his town should the bill pass.

But at the Bad Habit, Wade Walters, a Hutchinson resident who stopped by for an afternoon drink, said he definitely would get a permit.

"Who's going to mug someone if you think the S.O.B. has a Glock in his pocket?" Walters said. "Everybody I've talked to said it reduced street crime a great deal in other states where they allow it."

Holdout state


Special to the Journal-World

This photo from the 1890s shows Dodge City peace commissioners, back row from left, W. H. Harris, Luke Short and Bat Masterson, and, front row from left, Chas. Bassett, Wyatt Earp, L. McLean and Neal Brown. Earp banned guns in the residential areas of the famed Wild West town in the 1870s. As the 2004 Legislature takes up a measure that would allow Kansans to legally carry concealed weapons, Dodge City Police Chief John Ball is seeking ways for his town to opt out of the law.

Despite the shoot-em-up heritage of its early cowtowns, Kansas would be among the last states in the nation to adopt a concealed carry law should the bill pass.

Besides Kansas, only Illinois, Nebraska and Wisconsin bar residents from carrying concealed weapons, though nine states place some restrictions on who can receive a permit.

Kansas legislators approved a concealed-carry bill in 1997, but then-Gov. Bill Graves vetoed it.

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius has said she favored allowing concealed carry only for retired law enforcement officers, and her spokeswoman said last week it was doubtful Sebelius would sign a broader bill.

Under this year's bill, approved by the House on Thursday and sent to the Senate, any Kansas resident who is at least 21, a legal U.S. citizen with no felony record and who meets a few other requirements would be eligible for a concealed-carry permit.

Eligible applicants would receive a permit if they pass an eight-hour training course and pay a $150 fee.

Lesson from the past

For Dodge City Police Chief John Ball, the local history contains a lesson that makes him dislike the bill.
Ed Masterson, the lesser-known brother of famed lawman Bat Masterson, was city marshal in 1878 -- and Earp's boss. A cowboy on the south side of town carrying a concealed gun -- most men who carried them did so openly then -- shot and killed Ed Masterson.

Ball, a 23-year veteran of the local police force, doesn't want any of his officers suffering the same fate. He sees the bill as "a political thing."

"My big concern for officers in Dodge City is that we already worry enough about who's carrying guns," he said. "Now we'll have to worry about who's carrying them legally."

Ball said he has talked to other officials about options for banning concealed guns in the city, though this year's concealed-carry bill says communities could not opt out.
There was no such impediment to local firearms policies in 1878. The north side of Dodge City had a firearms ban because residents considered that the civilized part of town. Among other restrictions, women weren't allowed in saloons there.

On the south side, very little was forbidden, prostitution flourished and shootouts were common, said Cassie Sanko, chief curator of the Boot Hill Museum.

‘Packing heat'

The ban on the north side didn't mean people didn't carry guns there. Plenty of people carried illegal concealed weapons for protection, Sanko said, and there were about 25 holes in the walls of the Long Branch saloon to prove it.

Pam Markel, who with her husband, Don, owns a Garden City gun shop called Working Man's Guns, said she imagined a lot of people today carried concealed weapons even without a law allowing the practice and, "You just don't know about it."

She said she didn't think allowing people to carry concealed weapons would send people flocking to buy a gun.

"I'm more scared about driving down the road at night with all the drunks out than I am about getting shot," she said.

Markel's not sure she would carry a concealed gun if the bill becomes law, but she thinks she should at least have that right.

"The only problem I have with it is trying to find a place in my purse to put one," she said.

Contents of this site are © Copyright 2007 The Lawrence Journal-World. All rights reserved.
Privacy Policy | Contact | Advertise with us | About us | Feedback | RSS | Jobs

I would not be surprised to find that John Ball is pushing the City to do this. Reports are in that Rick Sowers and Jim Lembright are very anti-gun, but that Terry Lee, Jim Sherer and Ken Smoll are maintaining an open mind on the matter.

Now would be a good time to talk to those three.

[TexKan]

Good post - but my question is does Dodge still have those "tens of thousand" visitors each year ? That was an astonishing number.

[Bubba]

It looks like Terry Lee is all over this. I have exchanged several emails with him and he also wanted to know the link to Senate Bill 418 and the wording that is in Section 17 paragraph (a).