We;ll see if this K.C. Star editorial will do any good.
Posted on Fri, Mar. 17, 2006
Concealed carry in KansasWave a white flag, move to bigger issues
By BARBARA SHELLY
The Kansas City Star
A veto override makes a governor look bad, and pro-gun legislators might have the votes to override you on concealed carry. If they don’t this year, they’ll try next year.
To: Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius
Subject: Unsolicited advice
Dear Gov. Sebelius:
Don’t take a bullet on concealed carry.
This is more than a little strange, me telling a governor not to veto a bill allowing people to walk around with handguns in their pockets and purses. I don’t like guns and don’t care for groups that think it’s their God- and Constitution-given duty to defend irresponsible gun sales and oppose trigger-lock laws.
But there’s something else I don’t like: seeing good leaders squander political capital on concealed carry. It’s a principled stand but ultimately a loser. You can veto the bill, but sooner or later Kansans will legally pack hidden weapons. The advocates and the gun lobby won’t rest until they do.
I know this, because I live in Missouri, home of the first and probably the only statewide referendum on concealed carry. You may recall that in 1999, slightly more than half of us said we wanted it to remain unlawful. Four years later the Missouri legislature made it law anyway.
Some prominent Democrats were mortally wounded in the battle. Then-Gov. Bob Holden vetoed the legislation and watched members of his own party join Republicans to override the veto. Then-U.S. Sen. Jean Carnahan went skeet-shooting in the campaign season but never convinced gun-loving rural voters she was one of them. Some observers think Al Gore’s opposition to concealed carry cost him Missouri’s electoral vote in the 2000 election, when every state counted.
And you know what? It wasn’t worth it.
Like many city dwellers, I think packing guns in public places is bad policy. But I must agree with my gun-backing friends and correspondents that the sky hasn’t fallen since Missouri made it lawful.
You won’t get much help from statistics. Both sides use them to make their case and shoot down assertions made by the other side.
Missouri’s experience with concealed carry is too new to draw any conclusions, anyway. And it would be wrong to connect Kansas City’s spike in homicides last year with concealed carry by law-abiding citizens. Virtually all of the people charged with the murders had criminal records and couldn’t legally possess guns.
Sooner or later one of those worst-case scenarios we opponents imagined will become reality in a public way. A child will pull a loaded gun from a distracted dad’s pocket. A thief will wrestle a handgun from an intended victim. The result will be catastrophe.
But it will be the exception. And government can’t operate on a foundation of anecdotes, exceptions and rarely realized fears.
You, Gov. Sebelius, are in an elite but lonely club. Only four governors can say their states don’t allow concealed carry. But keeping up your membership is a heck of a lot of work.
A veto override makes a governor look bad, and pro-gun legislators might have the votes to override you on concealed carry. If they don’t this year, they’ll try next year. They’ll keep trying until they get it, because gun folks are more vociferous and tenacious about wanting concealed carry than opponents are about wanting to keep it banned. Plus, they’ve got deep pockets.
How much political capital will you expend on concealed carry? Might it not be better to get it out of the way and work on other things, such as boosting the Kansas economy, reaching an agreement on school financing and getting re-elected?
Some of my gun-fearing pals will say I’ve abandoned my principles. I prefer to think I’ve discovered pragmatism. Let’s off-load concealed carry and work on keeping college tuition affordable for immigrant students who are working on becoming U.S. citizens.
Besides, as we anti-gun Missourians can tell you, there’s more than one way to object to a policy. Given a choice, we favor businesses that prohibit concealed guns on their premises.
Just a little food for thought. You don’t have to like the concealed-carry bill. You don’t even have to sign it. Let it become law without your signature and save your ammunition for a winnable cause.
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Barbara Shelly is a member of the Editorial Board. To reach her, call (816) 234-4594 or send e-mail to
[email protected].
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