To the editor:

I swear I am not making this up.

A Kansas Senate committee endorsed a concealed-carry proposal. However, it bans concealed firearms from city halls, courthouses, the Statehouse, the state fair and bars. But the committee voted down an attempt to also ban concealed firearms from hospitals, churches, banks, community centers and parks.

Stan Clark, Oakley Republican, explained, “If we’re going to have concealed carry, we’ve got to be able to carry it somewhere besides home and the car.” (Wait, wasn’t protection for home and property the reason we’re supposed to need concealed weapons?)

Kay O’Connor, Olathe Republican, says restricting places where people can carry concealed firearms would be “overkill.” I can’t decide: Is her choice of words tastelessly jocular or serious and blindingly stupid?

I’m comforted to know that even if this idiocy becomes law, the Statehouse, state fair and bars — places legislators might go — will be gun-free. But it looks like the rest of us will just have to take our chances if we’re foolish enough to hang out in banks, hospitals, churches or parks.

If the Statehouse will be one of the few gun-free zones, sane Kansans may have to run for office. Maybe there are sane citizens of Oakley and Olathe who’d go to the state Senate for their own safety — and ours?

Steve Hicks,

Lawrence