Some issues just don’t seem to go away, but, as an item from a 100-year-old Lawrence newspaper suggests, attitudes about those issues often change.

While Kansas lawmakers are moving toward a measure that would allow Kansans to carry concealed guns in many places, including churches, it’s interesting to look back at an excerpt from the Lawrence Daily World on Feb. 28, 1906: “There is nothing more disgusting in a city or civilized population than to see a full-grown man display a ‘gun’ which he habitually carries in his pocket. In these times of peace and police protection, there is no excuse whatever for any man carrying a gun unless he is in a very dangerous occupation. We have far too many gun-toters in our community and it is dangerous.”

Although Lawrence and Kansas presumably are more “civilized” in 2006 than they were in 1906, the attitude toward carrying guns apparently has changed. A bill that already has passed the Kansas Senate would allow licensed Kansans to carry concealed guns except in certain places, including schools, government buildings and mental health centers. Efforts to add churches and libraries to the list of places where concealed guns are banned have failed.

Go figure. It never has made sense to many Kansans that although state legislators want to specifically ban concealed guns in the Statehouse, that they find it acceptable to allow guns in churches or private businesses. Under the current legislation, churches, libraries, private businesses and other places can individually decide to post signs and ban guns. That’s their business, not a government matter, according to legislators who favor the measure. Even an appeal from bishops of three major Christian denominations in the state failed to sway lawmakers this week.

One hundred years ago, the Daily World believed there were “far too many gun toters in our community.” In 2006, Kansas state legislators seem to disagree. Do more guns make us more safe or, as the World suggested in 1906, is it “dangerous”? Times change and so do attitudes, but the 100-year-old observation about guns and a “civilized population” continues to spark public debate.