Issue Position: Gun Violence

DO YOU SUPPORT COMMON SENSE GUN LAWS AIMED AT REDUCING GUN VIOLENCE IN KANSAS? YES
As a former Naval Weapons Officer and current gun owner I believe the gun laws in Kansas are insufficient to effectively reduce the incidents of gun violence across our state.

I voted to keep guns off our campuses and out of our public hospitals, nursing homes and mental health facilities. We were able to accomplish all of those goals except for "guns on campus". I will continue to fight to remove guns from our campuses.

The conservative Republicans in Topeka, who are very much in the pocket of the NRA, would like to reduce the concealed carry age to 18, to force guns into the hands of our public school teachers and to make school districts civilly liable if a shooting happens in their district and they have not armed their teachers. They also see no reason to outlaw "bump stocks", high capacity magazines and silencers. They see no problem with the proliferation of military grade weapons being sold to civilians; weapons which are the favored weapons of mass shooters and a threat to the lives of our law enforcement officers. They are also against gun owners having to register their guns, acquire a license to conceal carry, have a waiting period between purchasing a gun and picking it up as well as requiring a rigorous background check and gun safety training.

Despite the false claims of the NRA, no one is coming for anyone's guns. With 350,000,000 guns spread across our society that ship has sailed. Even so we CAN have laws in place that will reduce the number of guns in the hands of criminals, make owning a gun safer, reduce the number of gun injuries and deaths in Kansas and keep hunting and target shooting a part of the Kansas economy. I have and will continue to work for such common sense laws.

In 2020 I introduced a bill that would have outlawed high capacity magazines (like the ones the shooter used to fire at Highlands Elementary) in handguns. I also introduced a bill that would have added a 5% excise tax on all sales of guns and ammunition in Kansas with all the tax proceeds from those sales earmarked to upgrading our mental health facilities and programs. The Republican leadership in the House refused to even hear either bill in committee. I did offer the high capacity magazine as an amendment to another bill on the floor of the House but it was ruled "non-germane".

If reelected I will be offering these bills again and I will continue to look for ways to reduce the incidents of gun violence in Kansas.

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