Kansas law prohibits possessing a firearm in or on any school property or grounds upon which is located a building or structure used by a unified school district or an accredited nonpublic school for student instruction or attendance or extracurricular activities of pupils enrolled in kindergarten or any of the grades 1 through 12 or at any regularly scheduled school-sponsored activity or event.¹ This prohibition does not apply to a firearm secured in a motor vehicle by a parent, guardian, custodian or someone authorized to act in such person’s behalf who is delivering or collecting a student.² This prohibition also does not apply to possession of a concealed handgun by an individual who is not prohibited from possessing a firearm under federal or state law.³

In April 2013, Kansas enacted HB 2052, a law that, among things, placed substantial new restrictions on state and municipal agencies and officers’ authority to prohibit individuals from carrying concealed handguns in public buildings and workplaces.⁴ HB 2052 went into effect on July 1, 2013, but delayed implementation for four years for public colleges and universities.⁵ (The law outright exempted certain other public buildings, including buildings owned or leased by K-12 school districts).⁶

However, as of July 1, 2017, public colleges and universities are now compelled to allow concealed carry in all buildings that do not provide “adequate security measures,” as defined,⁷ “to ensure that no weapons are permitted to be carried into such building[.]”⁸ The “adequate security measures” required by this law are onerous. In order to prohibit concealed carry, public buildings and employers must have “electronic equipment and personnel” stationed at all public entrances,⁹ “including, but not limited to, metal detectors, metal detector wands or any other equipment used for similar purposes to ensure that weapons are not permitted to be carried into such building by members of the public.”¹⁰ To prohibit concealed carry in campus buildings, public colleges and universities must also post conspicuous notices regarding their concealed carry policy, as specified.¹¹

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1. Kan. Stat. Ann. § 21-6301(a)(11), (12). See also Kan. Stat. Ann. § 72-89a01(b), 72-89a02 (requiring the expulsion of students who possess a firearm at school, on school property, or at a school supervised activity).[↩]
2. Kan. Stat. Ann. § 21-6301(i)(3).[↩]
3. Kan. Stat. Ann. § 21-6301(i)(5).[↩]
4. See 2013 KS HB 2052, Sec. 2 (codified at K.S.A. § 75-7c20).[↩]
5. K.S.A. § 75-7c20(j).[↩]
6. K.S.A. § 75-7c20(m)(5)(B).[↩]
7. K.S.A. § 75-7c20(m)(1).[↩]
8. K.S.A. § 75-7c20(a).[↩]
9. This includes all entrances unless access to the entrance is “restricted to the public and requires a key, keycard, code, or similar device to allow entry to authorized personnel.” K.S.A. § 75-7c20(b), (m)(3).[↩]
10. K.S.A. § 75-7c20(m)(1).[↩]
11. K.S.A. § 75-7c20(a).[↩]