Topeka man fights for open-carry laws

By ANDY MARSO
The Topeka Capital-Journal
from the Sunday issue of the Wichita Eagle
at www.kansas.com

Topeka resident Earl McIntosh believes Kansas residents have the right to carry firearms openly, and he is willing to take on Kansas cities in court to fight for that right.
McIntosh, who served 21 years in the Marine Corps, is the Second Amendment chairman for the Kansas Libertarian Party. He also is party to a lawsuit against Prairie Village, a Johnson County suburb that enacted a local ordinance banning open carry.
To McIntosh, the issue is clear: Open carry should be allowed, and he has the U.S. Constitution, the Kansas Constitution and a recent Kansas Attorney General opinion on his side.
"They openly defy state law," McIntosh said of the open carry bans enacted in Prairie Village, Leawood, Wyandotte County and Lenexa.
McIntosh said the Kansas Libertarians also are involved in litigation with Leawood and Wyandotte County. Lenexa, he said, has expressed a desire to work out differences outside the courts, but the other local governments are too unbending in their opposition, he says.
Prairie Village City Council member Michael Kelly defended the ban in a letter to the Prairie Village Post.
"What would be the purpose of open-carry in Prairie Village?" Kelly wrote. "For sport, perhaps? To keep roving packs of Labradoodles at bay? Unlikely. I presume it would be for personal protection. If personal protection is the motive, then why is open-carry the answer? Especially given that PV has no restriction regarding conceal-carry. If a person is concerned for their safety while they are at the Hen House or strolling along the Tomahawk trail, then conceal-carry allows them to feel a sense of security without needlessly intimidating their neighbors."
McIntosh is certain the law is on his side. Attorney general opinions rendered by Derek Schmidt said that while state law allows municipalities to regulate "the manner" in which residents openly carry loaded firearms on public property, it doesn't allow for total bans on the practice and doesn't allow for any municipal regulation of unloaded firearms.
Attorney general opinions are nonbinding, and attorneys for the League of Kansas Municipalities have disagreed with the interpretation. House Bill 2111, which would have explicitly prohibited local governments from banning open carry, never came up for a vote after clearing committee this year.
Topeka allows open carry. Though Kelly worries about the intimidation factor of knowing who is carrying guns, Topeka resident Allyn Lockner said he is more concerned about not knowing.
At a forum hosted by the Shawnee County delegation Monday, Lockner asked why the state licenses residents to carry concealed weapons.
"Why concealed carry? Why not revealed carry, so I can know who has guns when I go into a room and I can decide whether or not I want to stay?" said Lockner, who was in a motorized wheelchair. "My ability and eligibility for carrying a gun is impossible."
Rep. Ken Corbet, R-Topeka, said the main benefit of concealed carry is that would-be criminals are deterred because they don't know who might be armed and ready to stop them.
Corbet said those with evil intentions find places that ban guns enticing.
"If you noticed, where do most of your problems happen?" Corbet asked the crowd gathered at the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library. "Soft targets. We're sitting in one now."
Corbet, a gun-rights advocate who owns a hunting preserve, said he isn't against open carry, adding that those who intend to do others harm aren't likely to be open carriers or licensed concealed carriers who have passed a background check.
"I wouldn't be concerned about concealed carry or open carry," Corbet said. "I just wouldn't."
McIntosh voiced similar views, saying that though open carry might cause some to become "alarmed," he has never heard of Kansans carrying a gun on their hip to deliberately intimidate other law-abiding citizens, or of the combination of open carry and emotional discussions becoming combustible in a public place.
"We have no examples of people getting into an argument and shooting someone," McIntosh said.
So McIntosh says he will fight on in the courts.
Motions have been made that question his standing to sue, because he doesn't live in the municipalities in question. But McIntosh said if he is removed from the lawsuits, others will take his place.
"Even if they throw us out, it's not over," McIntosh said. "It's not even close to over."
Information from: The Topeka (Kan.) Capital-Journal, http://www.cjonline.com
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