Kansas gun transport bill is signed
TOPEKA As of July 1 you won't need a map and a complete set of municipal codebooks to know where to put a firearm when transporting it in a car.
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius recently signed a law making it easier for gun owners to transport their firearms. The law makes it legal to transport guns as long as they are unloaded and in closed containers. The law prohibits cities and counties from imposing stricter rules.
Currently hunters and other law-abiding gun owners traveling across Kansas may unknowingly violate gun ordinances by simply driving through another town, Sebelius wrote in a statement explaining her support of the bill.
Right now, municipalities may impose different rules requiring guns to be stored in trunks in one area of the state and in glove compartments in another.
Sen. Phil Journey, a Haysville Republican and a leading advocate of gun rights, called the new rule a huge victory for gun owners.
This law affects every gun owner in the state, he said. As you go down I-35, there are seven different jurisdictions, and every one of them has a different set of rules.
Journey said the law would make Kansas more attractive to out-of-state hunters who might have avoided Kansas because of its patchwork quilt of rules.
Journey said Kansas was the 45th state to pass a consistent, statewide set of rules for transporting firearms.
The law does not affect local governments' abilities to use zoning laws to restrict the locations of gun stores and shooting ranges, or to impose more limits on guns in public buildings.
The law does allow law enforcement agencies to sell seized firearms; permits retired law enforcement officers to carry weapons according to federal law; and lets sheriffs execute warrants to seize guns from delinquent taxpayers.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/11446232.htm.