No training necessary to carry concealed guns?

So much for concealed-carry proponents’ assurances a decade ago that permit holders would have to pass a background check and undergo eight hours of training.

This week 31 Kansas senators said with their votes for Senate Bill 45 that they now see no need to vet or prepare adults before allowing them to carry concealed guns, and that Warren Theatres owner Bill Warren and other business leaders are wrong to worry that the bill may increase insurance rates or cause other problems.

Let it be said that, as predicted by gun-rights advocates, concealed-carry has been a nonissue in Kansas, with no sign of the Dodge City-style shootouts that some opponents predicted despite the issuance of 90,000 permits since 2007.

But permitless, no-training-necessary carry of concealed guns would be quite a change for Kansas, as was this week’s dismissal by supposedly pro-business lawmakers of the concerns of an important Wichita-headquartered company. Warren told The Eagle he had been informed that his insurance rates would increase if he allowed people without training to conceal and carry in his theaters.

It’s not a compelling argument that open-carry is already lawful statewide, as that’s not widely known or practiced (thank goodness) and in such cases the firearms are visible.

The insanity as Warren and others see it is that this bill allows carrying of unseen guns by untrained, unvetted individuals.

And Kansas would be only the fifth state to do so – a sharp contrast to its status as the 47th state to allow some form of concealed-carry.

Proponents say Warren could still restrict his theaters to permit-only concealed-carry, pointing to the very system they seek to dismantle (although Kansans who want to conceal-carry in other states could still choose to go through permitting).

If so, that would call for Kansas businesses to spell out their limits with new signs – and concealed-carry proponents have criticized businesses for posting no-gun signs.

Now the debate moves to the House, where Kansans can hope there will be a more frank debate about the pros and cons of the bill and more serious regard for what businesses say it will cost them.

It’s disappointing that Senate President Susan Wagle, R-Wichita, didn’t let her reservations keep her from voting “yes,” and now wants business owners to get involved in the House debate and, she said, “help the Legislature separate fact from fiction to eliminate any unintended consequences.”

Doesn’t the Senate, traditionally thought to be the more deliberative chamber, have a responsibility to get its own answers before passing bills?

The biggest question: Is the National Rifle Association now so all-powerful at the Statehouse that what it says matters more than what Kansas business owners say?

For the editorial board, Rhonda Holman

This story was originally published February 26, 2015 at 6:06 PM with the headline "No training necessary to carry concealed guns?."