The University of Kansas Hospital's main entrance in Kansas City, Kan. is pictured July 12, 2011.

Topeka ? A Senate committee started work quickly Thursday on a bill that would exempt public hospitals, including the University of Kansas hospital in Kansas City, Kan., and Lawrence Memorial Hospital from an impending requirement to allow people to carry concealed weapons in those facilities.

The bill would also exempt municipally-owned mental health facilities like the Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center, as well as municipal nursing homes and adult residential care facilities.

The Senate Ways and Means Committee heard testimony Thursday on Senate Bill 235, which was only introduced in the Senate on Monday. After the hearing, Sen. Jim Denning, R-Overland Park, used a procedural maneuver intended to make it easier to move the bill quickly through both chambers of the Legislature.

Denning’s motion, known in the Statehouse as a “gut-and-go” amendment, stripped out the contents of an unrelated House bill and inserted the contents of the Senate gun bill into it.

That means if the bill passes the Senate, it would go back to the House which could simply vote to accept the Senate changes to its bill, which would then send it directly to Gov. Sam Brownback.

The committee is expected to vote Friday to send the measure to the full Senate.

A House committee has considered two bills that would scale back portions of the upcoming mandate that greatly expands the number of places where people can carry concealed weapons, but both have failed to advance out of that committee.

One, like the Senate bill, would have exempted publicly owned health care facilities. Another also would have exempted public colleges and universities from the requirement.

Supporters of those measures, however, believe there are enough votes in the full House to pass an exemption at least for health care facilities.

In 2013, lawmakers passed a bill requiring that within four years, nearly all state and municipally owned facilities must either allow people to carry concealed weapons inside or provide adequate security at every public entrance to ensure that nobody can bring weapons inside.

The four-year exemption they were given under the law expires June 30.

The term “adequate security” is defined as, “electronic equipment and armed personnel at public entrances to detect and restrict the carrying of any weapons into the state or municipal building, or any public area thereof.”

Thursday’s hearing in the Senate committee included testimony from many of the same people who have testified in other settings.

Bob Page, president and CEO of the KU hospital, said the law would make KU hospital the only hospital in the Kansas City metropolitan area that allows concealed firearms.

And Dr. Lee Norman, chief medical officer, said applying the concealed-carry mandate to the KU hospital could impede its ability to recruit doctors into its internship and residency programs.

“We made it through this year okay … by the skin of our teeth,” Norman said. “The reason is because young people are asking this question. They Google up as they find out everything they can before making a trip to visit us, and they know this is a subject of discussion.”

Officials from the Kansas Department on Aging and Disabilities Services also testified about how much it would cost to provide adequate security at facilities like Osawatomie and Larned state mental hospitals.

Meanwhile, Brett Hildabrand, a former legislator who now lobbies for the Kansas State Rifle Association, argued that the 2nd amendment to the U.S. Constitution gives individuals a right to defend themselves.

“We believe that facilities should provide adequate security or allow individuals to provide their own security,” he said. “Those are really the only two options.”