Overland Park allows open carrying of guns
Lewis DiuguidPeople have to wonder whether the streets in Overland Park are so dangerous and crime is so threatening that good citizens need to openly carry firearms.
That is a natural assumption from the Overland Park City Council on Monday passing an ordinance allowing legal gun owners to openly carry their guns in public. The guns have to be in holsters with the safety engaged and in control of the law abiding owners at all times.
The Star reports that the new law is on track with a Kansas attorney general opinion that cities cannot prohibit open carrying of loaded firearms while on public property.
But it makes no sense. Crime isn’t rampant in Overland Park, and people generally feel safe in the growing suburb of Kansas City. Maybe not now if people wearing guns start turning up in many places.
John Moore
7 months, 3 weeks agoSo you put on your seat belt after you have a car accident or buy a fire extinguisher after your house is on fire?
As the saying goes, an armed society is a polite society. Those places with the least restrictive firearms regulations tend to have the lowest amount of crime. Therefore it does make sense that removing this unnecessary restriction would be in the best interest of public safety; based on, you now, facts.
I wouldn’t expect you to think further than the emotional gut reaction you posted in this opinion section. But once you dry your tears and take a few deep breaths, you may come to understand the common sense that millions of gun owners themselves have realized.
Matt Henry
7 months, 3 weeks agoIs there any data out there to suggest that Overland Park will actually become less safe because of this ordinance? Or is it even plausible to make the argument that somehow the community will find itself being less safe because guns are more in plain view by law-abiding citizens?
Or is this about how people will feel, irrespective of how it will actually effect their lives? And if this is true, what does it say about us?
Scotty Scotty
7 months, 3 weeks agoThis country, and states like Kansas — where I live — are moving closer and closer to looking like a third-world country all the time. I used to be a Republican, until I moved to Kansas and found out what it’s really like to live in a Red State. I wish I could move back to civilization . . .
Wes McCoy
7 months, 3 weeks agoUhhh Scotty–-
Kansas has higher eduation levels than MO
Kansas has higher income than MO
Kansas has better roads than MO
Kansas has lower unemployment than MO
Mo has two of the most dangerous cities in the US—Kansas has none
Mo has two unaccredited schools—KS has none
Mo has dozens of the worst districts in the country
And you think that makes Kansas a “third world country?”
I wonder what other things the voices are telling you?
Brandon Lewis
7 months, 3 weeks agowith the right to carry issues I always reference my wife. she has a CCW permit, carrys it in her purse proudly, but haven’t been to the shooting range in years.
I hate to imagine how her lack of target practice would play out in a real life situation. That is also my fear of every other handgun carrier, how they will react in real life siutuations.
George Hunsucker
Northland
7 months, 3 weeks agoYour wife would at least have the chance to defend herself Brandon!!!!
Tom Johnson
7 months, 3 weeks agoNo place is ever truly free of crime, Mr. Diuguid. Remember the Aurora, CO shootings? Did you hear about the AT&T worker being beaten to death with a crowbar in Gladstone, MO? Just because a place has a reputation as being relatively safe SHOULD NEVER make people complacent enough to not have and exercise the the right to defend themselves and their loved ones. Law abiding, responsible adults should have the right to carry a firearm. Hopefully it will never have to be unholstered, but if it does… it could save someones father, mother or child.
Reginald Thornton
7 months, 3 weeks agoMaybe he can check out the Pres’s old stomping grounds in Chicago where the Pres hisself voted every which way to prohibit any extra self-protection by the law-abiding against gang bangers. How’s that working out for them? Not so much. By contrast, OP’s crime rate is lower because its constituents are more law-abaiding. We’re intent on keeping it that way. Since the Pres’s Chicago constituency might come visit here sometime, we’d like to wear our intent publicly, just to avoid any confusion.
William Buchanan
7 months, 3 weeks agoThe main reason that OP changed its rules was not out of any real danger from criminals but rather the expense of potential lawsuits from individuals that think, without proof or any real merit, that they need to carry a gun at all times.
Mark Hastert
7 months, 3 weeks agoImagine yourself out for a nice meal with your family and an armed stranger walks in to the restaurant….. it would give a lot of folks indigestion. Imagine yourself and your family out for a nice movie when an armed stranger starts shooting up the place followed by other armed strangers doing the same, shooting in the dark of a crowded theater…..who do you kill? Overland Park isn’t the OK Corral. The good and bad guys don’t wear white and black hats. Amateurs shooting at amateurs in the dark. That’s a scenario for carnage.
George Hunsucker
Northland
7 months, 3 weeks agoWhen you have lost the argument Pappy, you always go for the ridiculus Pappy…. Welcome to libdom!!!