The list of places people wouldn’t want concealed handguns to be carried is a long one.

The president of the Kansas State Rifle Assn. tells us that supporters of laws that allow residents to carry concealed handguns will try to raise that issue in Kansas again during the next legislative session.

Asked during a visit to the Journal-World this week what he thought about such laws, Senate President Dave Kerr raised an interesting point. In 1997, a concealed-carry law passed the House and narrowly passed the Senate but was vetoed by Gov. Bill Graves. One feature of that law, Kerr noted, were a number of exemptions that would prevent people from carrying concealed weapons in certain places. Among those exemptions was the Kansas capitol building.

Kerr said he continues to wonder why, if carrying concealed firearms is a good idea, it isn’t a good idea at the state capitol.

Sen. Mark Buhler, R-Lawrence, who accompanied Kerr also noted during the discussion, “I was talking to a banker friend of mine the other day and he said, ‘Do I really want somebody coming in the bank with a gun? I don’t think so.'”

The list of places where it would seem that carrying concealed weapons would be a bad idea is a long one: Schools, churches, day care centers, city offices, a hospital, the neighborhood supermarket and any number of other places. Certainly adding concealed weapons to any location where tempers might flare would pose a special risk. How about an attorney’s office or even a sporting event? A newspaper office? No thanks. Retailers, what about in your shops?

Current law allows people to carry weapons in their cars or to carry concealed weapons on their own property or in their place of business if they are proprietors. Is there a need to expand those parameters? Presumably the intent of the current law is to allow people to protect their life and property, but allowing concealed weapons in a broader number of locations seems to increase the chances that weapons will be used in a fit of temper or even discharged by accident.

Polls taken in the 1990s showed little support in Kansas for expanding the concealed-carry law. Perhaps the sentiment has changed, but the issue raised by the two state senators this week is a good one to consider. When you think of all the places you wouldn’t want someone carrying a concealed weapon, there may not be many locations left.