In 2018, Kansas passed legislation to restrict some people who have been convicted of domestic violence misdemeanors or who are subject to domestic violence protection orders from legally acquiring and possessing guns.¹ However, Kansas law still does not:

• Require courts to notify people when they become prohibited from possessing firearms or ammunition under state or federal law due to domestic violence;

• Require the surrender of firearms or ammunition by people who have become prohibited from possessing them under state or federal law due to domestic violence; or

• Explicitly authorize or require the removal of firearms or ammunition from the scene of a domestic violence incident.

Domestic Violence Misdemeanors

Kansas law now prohibits a person who has been convicted of a domestic violence misdemeanor offense from knowingly possessing guns within five years after conviction.² However, federal law law generally provides a stronger lifetime prohibition on firearm possession by people convicted of domestic violence offenses.

Kansas defines domestic violence to involve the use or attempted use of physical force, or the threatened use of a deadly weapon, committed against a person with whom the offender is involved or has been involved in a dating relationship or is a family or household member.³

Domestic Violence Restraining Orders

Kansas law now also prohibits people from knowingly possessing firearms while subject to certain domestic violence restraining orders.⁴ An person is prohibited from possessing guns if he or she is subject to a court order that:

A) Was issued after a hearing, of which the person received actual notice, and at which the person had an opportunity to participate;

(B) Restrains the person from harassing, stalking or threatening an intimate partner of the person, or a child of the person or intimate partner, or that restrains the person from engaging in other conduct that would place an intimate partner in reasonable fear of bodily injury to the partner or the child; and either 

(C) (i) Includes a finding that such person represents a credible threat to the physical safety of such intimate partner or child; OR 

(ii) by its terms explicitly prohibits the use, attempted use or threatened use of physical force against such intimate partner or child that would reasonably be expected to cause bodily injury.⁵

Kansas defines intimate partner to include the spouse of the person, a former spouse of the person, an individual who is a parent of a child of the person or an individual who cohabitates or has cohabitated with the person.⁶

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1. 2018 KS HB 2145.[↩]
2. Kan. Stat. Ann. § 21-6301(a)(18).[↩]
3. Kan. Stat. Ann. § 21-6301(m)(1).[↩]
4. Kan. Stat. Ann. § 21-6301(a)(17).[↩]
5. Id.[↩]
6. Kan. Stat. Ann. § 21-6301(m)(3).[↩]