TOPEKA — Kansas legislators have advanced a proposal to keep concealed guns out of hospitals, mental health centers and nursing homes after June.
The Senate Ways and Means Committee approved a bill Thursday that would give the facilities a permanent exemption from a 2013 gun-rights law.
That law said people must be allowed to bring concealed guns into public buildings that don’t have extra security including guards and metal detectors. Universities, state and public hospitals, mental health centers and nursing homes received a four-year exemption expiring July 1.
The committee’s voice vote sends the measure to the Senate for debate.
Gun-rights advocates previously blocked such proposals. But Gov. Sam Brownback last month proposed spending $24 million over two years on extra security at state hospitals for the mentally ill and developmentally disabled.
