Civic Pressure

For people living in major urban areas, the picture of folks walking down the street with legally concealed weapons and no special permits is a terrifying concept. Most “safe neighborhood” urban dwellers know which neighborhoods to avoid, and most non-gang-affiliated “unsafe neighborhood” urbanites wish they could move out of their nasty buildings or hoods. If you happen to need to visit a federal office building, particularly a courthouse, you know you are facing metal detectors and often airport-like x-ray machines.

But there are a pile so far-right-of-center-that-you-cannot-see-the-center states where guns are a religion, big cities not-so-big, and where concealed weapons are absolutely legal. Left and right coasters derisively described these as “fly over” states, but they are our heartland, home of our vital “amber waves of grain,” mineral and fossil fuel extraction and production and home to some of our largest corporations. These states have defined America “the beautiful” for too many for a very, very long time. These states are also terrifyingly dangerous to those not used to the culture of guns that obsesses so many in this middle kingdom.

Nowhere is the issue more difficult than Kansas, which has five cities with populations over 100,000 (in order of size: Wichita, Overland Park, Kansas City, Olathe and Topeka), although no town has more than 400 thousand people. Kansas also allows concealed weapons without special permits, but has allowed municipalities to opt out of allowing such armed citizens from entering their official buildings carrying hidden weapons. A city council debate with an armed spectator is, after all, a pretty frightening concept.

There’s just one catch. For towns and special districts to ban such concealed weapons on their official premises, they have to pay for enforcement and detection. The detection requirement was passed by the state legislature and signed into law by the governor expressly to protect those who would be normally  be so armed, who would not be allowed to carry their weapons legally into such government buildings, from those who might simply ignore the restriction. Whew! Interesting reason. The opt-out deadline for such local governmental entities was January 1^st.

With an estimated 362 thousand people, Wichita felt strongly that they should protect civil servants and elected officials from irate citizens carrying concealed weapons. Not exactly an irrational belief given the number of crazies who have let loose in publicly-accessible building of late. There was just one tiny little catch. In budget-impaired America, the cost of such detection/enforcement efforts was just too pricey. Pay for this requirement and other “stuff” would have to go (schools and infrastructure, maybe?) or taxes would have to be raised (right, in a Tea Party stronghold?!).

“‘It was essentially being foisted upon us,’ said Janet Miller, a City Council member in Wichita. The city applied over the summer for a six-month exemption but voted last month not to extend it after the police estimated that it would cost $14 million a year to restrict guns in all 107 city-owned buildings.

“While Republican-majority legislatures across the country are easing restrictions on gun owners, few states are putting more pressure on municipalities right now than Kansas. The new law has forced some local leaders to weigh policy conviction against fiscal pragmatism in a choice that critics say was flawed from the start: Open vulnerable locations to concealed side arms or stretch meager budgets to cover the extra security measures…

“‘It’s unfair to the taxpayer to ask them to fork out those kinds of dollars,’ said Ms. Miller, who wanted more time to weigh options but admitted that choices were slim. ‘There is no municipality in the state of Kansas that can afford those infrastructure costs…’

“‘For some of your smaller, more rural areas, it’s just not economically feasible,’ [Melissa A. Wangemann, general counsel for the Kansas Association of Counties]said. Some considered closing entrances to limit the security expense.

“The Kansas Board of Regents, which runs the state’s public universities, and the library system in Topeka were among those seeking the extended exemption, delaying the issue until 2018. As of [January 9^th], out of several thousand local government entities across the state, only about 160 places had sought an exemption for at least one of their buildings, according to public documents obtained from the state attorney general’s office. Many are hospitals and community colleges.” New York Times, January 11^th.

The other night I was at an ice hockey game, sitting next to a tough construction worker from Australia, on a holiday in the States. Australia banned personal weapons back in 1996 when a crazy opened fire in Tasmania, killing 35 and wounding 21 more. He loved the tough brawling nature of hockey, played rugby and prided himself on his Australian machismo. When I asked him how he felt about America gun laws, he smiles and said, “You lot are crazy! It only took us one horrible lesson to get the point.” Hard to argue with the man.

I’m Peter Dekom, and exactly what hard benefits has this culture of guns produced for the United States… and exactly what has it cost us?