OLATHE, Kan. — Johnson County Commissioners approved a list on Thursday of nearly 300 buildings that it says will be exempt from allowing people to carry concealed weapons.
One of the buildings is the county administration building. Under a change in Kansas law that takes effect Monday, people can carry concealed weapons into public buildings that don’t have adequate security, things like metal detectors.
But Kansas is allowing local governments to exempt some buildings for up to six months, while municipalities develop security plans.
Thursday morning, Johnson County released a list of 298 facilities where concealed weapons will continue to be banned until the county develops appropriate security measures.
Security must be in place for these buildings by January 1, when the conceal carry exemption expires. Exempted buildings include libraries, fairgrounds and New Century Airport.
“In our perspective, this is a change,” said Joe Waters, Johnson County Bureau Chief. “Today and for many years our properties have been posted that no guns are allowed. To go about making this change we want to take advantage of the avenues available to us through the legislation, to determine whether we want to continue on case by case basis, property by property basis,” Waters said.
The county says its goal is to develop adequate security measures for many of the buildings so that concealed weapons will continue to be banned from them.
Johnson County commissioners unanimously approved the list of exempt buildings. No one at Thursday’s public meeting spoke out against the exemptions.
