Kansas Attorney General Opinion 2017-009

July 10, 2017
ATTORNEY GENERAL OPINION NO. 2017- 9
The Honorable Blake Carpenter
State Representative, 81st District
2425 N. Newberry, Apt. 3202
Derby, KS 67037
Re: 	State Departments; Public Officers and Employees‒Firearms‒Personal
and Family Protection Act; License to Carry Concealed Handgun
Synopsis: 	A state university policy requiring concealed handguns carried on campus
to be carried without a round in the chamber does not violate K.S.A. 2016
Supp. 75-7c03(a). Cited herein: K.S.A. 2016 Supp. 12-16,124(a); 75-7c03;
75-7c17; K.S.A. 76-712; 76-725.
* 	* 	*
Dear Representative Carpenter:
As the State Representative for the 81 st District, you ask for our opinion regarding the
scope of K.S.A. 2016 Supp. 75-7c03(a), which reads:
The attorney general shall issue licenses to carry concealed handguns to
persons who comply with the application and training requirements of this
act and who are not disqualified under K.S.A. 75-7c04, and amendments
thereto. Such licenses shall be valid throughout the state for a period of
four years from the date of issuance. The availability of licenses to
carry concealed handguns under this act shall not be construed to
impose a general prohibition on the carrying of handguns without
such license, whether carried openly or concealed, or loaded or
unloaded. 1
1 Emphasis added.

The Honorable Blake Carpenter
Page 2
Your question is whether the language in bold type above prohibits a state university
from adopting a policy whereby persons carrying a concealed handgun on campus must
do so without a round in the chamber. For the reasons explained below, we think the
answer to your question is no.
To answer your question, we follow the rules of statutory construction established by the
Kansas Supreme Court:
The most fundamental rule of statutory construction is that the intent of the
legislature governs if that intent can be ascertained. We first attempt to
ascertain legislative intent by reading the plain language of the statutes
and giving common words their ordinary meanings. When a statute is
plain and unambiguous, we do not speculate as to the legislative intent
behind it and will not read into the statute something not readily found in
it. 2
The plain language of K.S.A. 2016 Supp. 75-7c03(a) authorizes the issuance of
concealed carry licenses, and establishes the expiration date for those licenses. The
language you ask about clarifies that the existence of such licenses should not be
construed to generally prohibit unlicensed open or concealed carry of handguns. Or, to
put it another way, the fact that concealed carry licenses are available in Kansas does
not mean that a person must have a license to legally carry a handgun openly or
concealed, regardless of whether the handgun is loaded.
We do not think the plain and unambiguous language of K.S.A. 2016 Supp. 75-7c03(a)
addresses the authority of state universities to adopt a policy such as you describe.
Rather, it appears that the phrase, “. . . whether carried openly or concealed, or loaded
or unloaded” simply emphasizes that it is not generally illegal for a law-abiding person to
carry a loaded handgun.
That conclusion is consistent with the grammatical structure of the sentence. The
subject of the sentence is “[t]he availability of licenses to carry concealed handguns”
and the predicate is “shall not be construed.” The remainder of the sentence sets forth
the manner in which the subject (and nothing more) may not be construed.
But the source of legal authority for a state university to adopt a policy requiring persons
carrying a concealed handgun on campus to do so without a round in the chamber is
not the availability of concealed carry licenses; rather, the Board of Regents and state
universities claim that authority from K.S.A. 76-712, which grants the Board of Regents
the power of “control, operation, management or supervision” of state universities, and
K.S.A. 76-725, which authorizes the chief administrative officer of each state university
to “administer the affairs of such institution” subject to state laws and Board of Regents
2 Northern Natural Gas Co. v. ONEOK Field Services Co., 296 Kan. 906, 918 (2013), quoting Stewart
Title of the Midwest v. Reece & Nichols Realtors, 294 Kan. 553, 564–65 (2012) (internal citations
omitted).

The Honorable Blake Carpenter
Page 3
policies and regulations. 3 As we noted in Attorney General Opinion No. 2016-17, the
legislature has enacted various laws preempting the authority of local governments to
regulate firearms,4 but state agencies are not subject to the same limitations. In fact,
“[t]he only provisions of Kansas law that limit the authority of state agencies to regulate
concealed carry are found in the [Personal and Family Protection Act, K.S.A. 2016
Supp. 75-7c01 et seq.] . . . .”5
Nothing in the statutory provision you have brought to our attention, nor any other
provision of the Personal and Family Protection Act, addresses any limitation on those
separate sources of authority upon which universities have based the policy in question.
In the absence of a statute prohibiting a state university from regulating the manner of
carrying a concealed handgun on campus, the university’s authority to do so derives
from the statutes granting general control over university operations to the Board of
Regents and the chief administrative officer.6
This conclusion is consistent with the legislative history of K.S.A. 2016 Supp. 75-
7c03(a). The language you ask about was enacted as part of 2015 Senate Bill 45 (SB
45), 7 which amended various provisions of state law to allow the concealed carry of
handguns 	without 	a 	state-issued 	license; 	SB 	45 	was 	also 	referred 	to 	as 	the
“constitutional carry” bill. The chief sponsor of SB 45 provided the following written
testimony during a hearing before the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee:
Senate Bill 45 is a common sense measure that builds upon the good
work the legislature accomplished in past years. Currently, in the state of
Kansas, it is lawful for a law abiding citizen to carry a firearm, without a
permit, in the open or unconcealed anywhere except for areas that have
been exempted via statute. Therefore, it makes sense that a law abiding
citizen should have the freedom to carry a firearm under their clothing or in
their purse if they so choose without undergoing the permitting process. 8
3 The state universities and the Board of Regents also note that the Kansas Constitution, Art. 6, Sec. 2,
requires that state law “provide for a state board of regents and for its control and supervision of public
institutions of higher learning.”
4 See, e.g., K.S.A. 2016 Supp. 12-16,124(a) (“[n]o city or county shall adopt or enforce any ordinance,
resolution or regulation . . . governing the requirement of fees, licenses or permits for, the commerce in or
the sale, purchase, transfer, ownership, storage, carrying, transporting or taxation of firearms or
ammunition . . . ”) and 75-7c17(a) (“[n]o city, county or other political subdivision of this state shall
regulate, restrict or prohibit the carrying of concealed handguns by individuals except as provided in
K.S.A. 21-6301, 21-6302, 21-6304, 21-6309, 75-7c10 or 75-7c20, and amendments thereto, or K.S.A. 21-
4218(f), prior to its repeal”) (emphasis added).
5 Attorney General Opinion No. 2016-17.
6 This is consistent with our conclusion in Attorney General Opinion 2016-15 that “neither the PFPA nor
any other provision of law restricts the state government from adopting rules to govern the manner or
carrying or storing a concealed handgun once the handgun is inside a state-owned or leased building.”
(emphasis in original).
7 L. 2015, Ch. 16.
8 Minutes, Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee, February 12, 2015, Attachment 1.

The Honorable Blake Carpenter
Page 4
Although 	testimony 	before 	a 	legislative 	committee 	does 	not 	necessarily 	reflect
legislative intent, we note that a majority of the Kansas Senate, 26 senators, co-
sponsored SB 45 when it was introduced. We therefore think that the above testimony
is indicative of the legislative intent behind SB 45, and that the amendments to K.S.A.
75-7c03(a) were part of the effort to legalize unlicensed concealed carry. There is no
indication in the legislative record that the language about which you ask was intended
to extinguish the general authority of the Board of Regents or a state university to
regulate the manner of carrying a concealed firearm on campus. Because neither the
plain 	language 	of 	that 	statute 	itself, 	nor 	the 	legislative 	history 	of 	its 	enactment,
addresses a state university’s general authority that has a basis in both the Kansas
constitution and statute, we think a court would “not read into the statute something not
readily found in it.”9
To summarize, it appears that the language you ask about was meant to prevent the
misinterpretation of the legislature’s clear intent to allow unlicensed concealed carry by
persons who may lawfully possess a firearm. That specific statutory language does not
bar a state university from adopting policies requiring concealed handguns carried on
campus to be carried without a round in the chamber. We therefore think that the
answer to your question is no.
Sincerely,
Derek Schmidt
Attorney General
Sarah Fertig
Assistant Attorney General
DS:AA:SF:sb
9 See fn. 2, supra.