Preemption Statutes

Kansas preempts local governments from regulating firearms, ammunition, or any component of either. Localities are restricted as follows:

“No city or county shall adopt or enforce any ordinance, resolution or regulation, and no agent of any city or county shall take any administrative action, governing the requirement of fees, licenses or permits for, the commerce in or the sale, purchase, transfer, ownership, storage, carrying, transporting or taxation of firearms or ammunition, or any component or combination thereof.”¹

Kansas law voids any regulation adopted prior to July 1, 2015 that is prohibited by the above provision.²

In addition, Kansas preempts regulation of the carrying of concealed handguns:

“No city, county or other political subdivision of this state shall regulate, restrict or prohibit the carrying of concealed handguns by individuals except as provided in [certain provisions of state law, discussed below]. Any existing or future law, ordinance, rule, regulation or resolution enacted by any city, county or other political subdivision of this state that regulates, restricts or prohibits the carrying of concealed handguns by individuals except as provided in [the provisions discussed below], shall be null and void.”³

Exceptions

Kansas law provides for limited exceptions to the preemption statutes:

• Subject to certain exceptions⁴, a local government in Kansas may prohibit the carrying of a concealed handgun in any state or municipal building, or in a public area of any state or municipal building, or at a public employee’s workplace if the public area, building, or workplace has adequate security measures to ensure that no weapons are permitted to be carried into such public area, building, or workplace, and the public area, building, or workplace is conspicuously posted in accordance with rules and regulations adopted by the attorney general as a location where carrying a concealed handgun is prohibited.⁵
• Cities and counties may levy and collect retailers’ sales tax on the sale of firearms, ammunition or any component or combination thereof.⁶

In 2014, the legislature repealed a number of exceptions to the preemption law that allowed cities and counties to regulate openly carrying a loaded firearm, carrying firearms in jails and courthouses, and transporting firearms.⁷

Interpretation

As of the date this page was last updated, Giffords Law Center is not aware of any significant case law interpreting these statutes.

Other Statutory Provisions

Kansas prohibits local officials, during a state of emergency, from seizing any lawfully possessed firearm other than as evidence in a criminal investigation, or requiring registration of any firearm not required to be registered by state law. Individuals harmed by a violation of this prohibition may file suit and recover the seized firearm, damages and attorneys’ fees.⁸

Kansas limits the local regulation of sport shooting ranges. A sport shooting range that is not in violation of state law at the time of the adoption of an ordinance or resolution that regulates the range is permitted to continue in operation even if operation of the range does not conform to the new regulation.⁹ In addition, a sport shooting range in existence on July 1, 2001 and in compliance with generally accepted operation practices, even if not in compliance with an ordinance or resolution of a local unit of government, is permitted to make repairs, expand facilities, activities and membership.¹⁰ Local government may regulate the location and construction of the facilities.¹¹ Kansas also permits local governments to exercise eminent domain or easement powers over a permanent or improved sport shooting range only as necessary for infrastructure additions or improvements, such as highways, waterways or utilities.¹²

Immunity

For state laws prohibiting local units of government (i.e., cities and counties) from filing certain types of lawsuits against firing ranges and the gun industry, see our page on Immunity Statutes in Kansas.

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1. Kan. Stat. Ann. § 12-16,124(a).[↩]
2. Kan. Stat. Ann. § 12-16,124(b).[↩]
3. Kan. Stat. Ann. § 75-7c17(a).[↩]
4. The exceptions are: any building located on the grounds of the Kansas state school for the deaf or the Kansas state school for the blind; a state or municipal-owned medical care facility; a state or municipal-owned adult care home; a community mental health center; an indigent health care clinic; or certain buildings owned or leased by the University of Kansas hospital authority or within certain health care districts. Kan. Stat. Ann. § 75-7c20(k).[↩]
5. Kan. Stat. Ann. § 75-7c20(a), (b) & (c). Kansas law provided avenues for local authorities to exempt their buildings from the security and signage requirements, but these exemptions expired on July 1, 2017. Kan. Stat. Ann. § 75-7c20(i), (j).[↩]
6. Kan. Stat. Ann. § 12-16,124(c)(4).[↩]
7. 2014 Kan. Sess. Laws 97.[↩]
8. Kan. Stat. Ann. § 48-959.[↩]
9. Kan. Stat. Ann. § 58-3223(a).[↩]
10. Kan. Stat. Ann. § 58-3223(b).[↩]
11. Id.[↩]
12. Kan. Stat. Ann. § 58-3224.[↩]