Just off the top of your head and without thinking about it, do you think that allowing guns in a state mental hospital is a good idea? Neither does the Governor of Kansas, and not surprisingly, it is his own party, the GOP, who has come up with this wondrous law, soon to take effect July 1, 2017, unless Governor Brownback can stop his own party. He's trying. This from the Wichita Eagle:
Gov. Sam Brownback wants more than $24 million over the next two years to keep guns out of state hospitals, frustrating lawmakers who question how such security measures can be put into place by a July 1 deadline.
Lawmakers and Brownback have the power to change the law – and avoid spending millions – but attempts to amend it have faltered.
A 2013 state law allows concealed weapons at public hospitals and college campuses beginning July 1. That includes the state’s psychiatric hospitals in Larned and Osawatomie.
Lawmakers voiced frustration with the Brownback administration over the request during a joint meeting of the House and Senate budget committees. They appeared skeptical that the metal detectors could be put in place and guards trained by July 1.
“I think it was pretty apparent there has been no planning and no real effort to get prepared for July 1. There’s no training program in place,” Rep. Kathy Wolfe Moore, D-Kansas City, said.
The budget request doesn’t include any money in the current fiscal year for training.
“If we’re going to train existing personnel who are not authorized to carry now, they’re going to have to get into training. We’re going to have to pay for that before the fiscal year is up,” Sen. Vicki Schmidt, R-Topeka, said.
The Legislature as a whole supports exempting hospitals from allowing concealed weapons, said Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning, R-Overland Park.
“Give them an exemption, let the signs stay up and have that feeling that there are no guns on mental health campuses,” Denning said.
“Considering the muscle the NRA is willing to flex, I think override is what becomes very difficult,” Democrat Wolfe Moore said.
And the NRA is flexing plenty of muscle. In 2016 it flexed upwards of $23Million in contributions to politicians, according to The Center For Responsive Politics and that's not counting the $30.3 Million it spent on electing Donald Trump, who spoke before the NRA the same day that this Kansas story broke. RawStory:
Stymied by his initial bid to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border when Congress balked at funding the initiative, Trump vowed he will sooner or later build the wall, which had been a signature campaign promise.
“We need a wall. We’ll build the wall. Don’t even think about it,” he said.
Speculating on who might run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, Trump brought up the name of U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and used a derogatory nickname he had adopted for her last year.
“It may be Pochahontas, and she is not big on the NRA,” Trump said of Warren, who had once said she had some Native American ancestry.
“You have a true friend and champion in the White House,” he said. “We want to assure you of the sacred right of self defense for all of our citizens.”
My initial reaction to Trump's remarks was, "God help the NRA or anybody else who believes that Donald Trump is their 'true friend and champion.'" And maybe that's how it will play out. I knew that the NRA had devolved, but even the idea of carrying firearms into a mental hospital is totally beyond the pale. This is insane.