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Kansas Regents Considering New Policy For Guns On Campuses

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The Kansas Board of Regents is soliciting comments from state universities about a proposal to allow people to have concealed guns on their campuses but not carry the weapons openly. A regents committee has drafted a proposed policy and the full board hopes to vote on it in December.

A 2013 state law says adults 21 and older who can carry concealed guns can bring them into public buildings unless those buildings have security measures such as metal detectors. The law allowed universities to exempt themselves until July 2017.

Breeze Richardson, director of communications for the Board of Regents, says the exemption will not be changed in anyway before July 2017. She says the question of whether the changes in gun laws were prompted by gun violence on campuses nationwide, is one for lawmakers, not the regents.

“They’re the ones that changed the law," she says. "The board is simply reacting to it. This is not something that is being done independently.”

Under the proposed policy, each university must have a place for people to securely store their weapons. Each campus also must identify the buildings in which concealed weapons won't be allowed.

Richardson says the proposal is being considered now so that universities have enough time to implement the change accordingly.

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Follow Abigail Wilson on Twitter @AbigailKMUW.

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