Did Emerald City have home rule?

If Emerald City had home rule, I think I've figured out why Dorothy was in such a hurry to get back to Kansas--it looks as if Kansas state law is going to preempt municipalities from imposing more onerous firearms laws. This means, of course, that a person travelling through the state need not worry about additional, arbitrary restrictions on one's ability to defend oneself--restrictions imposed by cities and towns, in obvious defiance of the intent of the concealed carry legislation passed last year.

The new law is clearly needed, as illustrated by the advent of laws in such places as Roeland Park, Mission, Olathe, and Leawood, banning the carrying of firearms in city parks and/or certain public buildings. Perhaps residents of those cities should ask their elected officials why they would want the only firearms in such places to be in the hands of criminals.

The preemption bill is not necessarily home free--Governor Sebelius may veto it, as she vetoed the original concealed carry legislation last year. Perhaps she has learned from that experience, and will not try to use the power of the governor's office to ride roughshod over the will of the people and their elected representatives (according to the article linked to above, she has not given any public indications on what she intends to do about the bill). If she has not learned that yet, I still like the bill's chances. In Kansas,a 2/3 supermajority is required in both legislative chambers to override a veto--that means that 87 House Reps. and 27 Senators would need to vote for the override.

The bill received 106 votes in the House, so the 87 votes required for an override should be a simple matter. The Senate is closer--of the bill's 29 Senate supporters in the original vote, 27 of those would be needed to stick to their principles, for an override to succeed. It is not unheard of for 3 or more of a bill's initial supporters to defect, when it comes to an override vote--particularly for legislators in the governor's party. At the moment, I don't know of a way to determine which Senators voted for H 2528, so I don't know how many of the bill's initial supporters in the Senate would be vulnerable to Democratic partisan pressure from Sebelius. Of course, she may sign the bill into law (or simply do nothing with it), thus obviating the need to override a veto.

Hopefully, Dorothy will soon be able to carry protection from wicked witches and flying monkeys, even in a Leawood city park.