My biggest fear about concealed carry, based on letters to the editor and Opinion Line calls, is that many proponents seem to think that getting a permit makes them deputized.
A common concealed-carry argument is that the new law will be useful not just for self-defense but for vigilante justice on the streets, with gun toters thwarting crimes they see unfolding in public. “There are many anecdotal cases where individuals with firearms and permits to carry have saved the lives of strangers and law enforcement by happening upon a violent crime or an attempted arrest gone wrong,” state Sen. Phil Journey, R-Haysville, one of the law’s sponsors, told a Lawrence Journal World online audience.
But a caution to would-be Dirty Harrys: The city of Wichita this week forked over $4.75 million to a man who was shot and paralyzed two years ago in a confrontation with police. The incident underscores how even highly trained officers can make tragic errors in split-second decisions.
Local government and taxpayers pay the high costs of occasional mistakes. But private citizens are on their own. If a concealed-carry permit holder plans on playing street enforcer, he’d better make sure he has a big legal fund.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Maybe it was just a bad joke to a right-wing audience. Still, GOP gubernatorial candidate Ken Canfield of Overland Park (and originally from Wichita) didn’t elevate the political debate when speaking recently to the Kansas Republican Assembly. Canfield, founder of the National Center for Fathering, recounted a third-grade Sunday school class he led a couple years ago in which the children were studying the meaning of “hypocrite,” The Topeka Capital-Journal reported.
“(What do) we call those guys that say one thing and do another?” Canfield asked.
“Democrats,” a child said.
“I said, ‘Yes.’ ”
Is this really what Canfield thinks, that all — and only — Democrats are hypocrites? Did he really reinforce this view to children in church?
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
The Eagle’s Fred Mann certainly stirred up readers with his compelling Sunday profile of Fred Phelps, the 76-year-old disbarred lawyer behind the Westboro Baptist Church’s protests of funerals of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq. At least 27 states, including Kansas, have passed or pursued laws aimed at limiting the Phelps clan’s protests, so this infamous Kansan is more newsworthy than ever right now. Interesting tidbits: that Phelps’ anti-gay crusade started because he couldn’t get Topeka officials to stop homosexual activity in Gage Park, and that the clan spends a quarter-million dollars on airfares each year. If the story fell short of explaining exactly why Phelps thinks U.S. troop deaths are God’s deserved payback to America for tolerating homosexuality, perhaps it’s because such thinking is inexplicable.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
“Many Americans have become enamored of the European approach to immigration — perhaps without realizing it,” commentator Fareed Zakaria wrote in an op-ed piece in The Washington Post. “Guest workers, penalties, sanctions and deportation are all a part of Europe’s mode of dealing with immigrants.” But Zakaria has a warning: “The results of this approach have been on display recently in France, where rioting migrant youths again burned cars last week. Across Europe one sees disaffected, alienated immigrants, ripe for radicalism. The immigrant communities deserve their fair share of blame for this, but there’s a cycle at work. European societies exclude the immigrants, who become alienated and reject their societies.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
All the talk about the need to step up the area’s technical education could shift toward action today, as the Sedgwick County Commission decides whether to issue $39 million in revenue bonds for a state-of-the-art training complex at Jabara Airport. The bond issue vote comes just days after Cessna Aircraft Co. and Spirit AeroSystems announced plans to invest $1.05 million each in equipment and scholarships for the facility. Officials say a total $5 million will come from the private sector, and the Wichita City Council has committed the land. Federal and state funding also will be sought. These are big investments in a big project, but this cooperative effort seems essential to positioning the local economy and work force to be competitive for decades to come.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
I saw the documentary “Why We Fight” over the weekend, and found it powerful and disturbing. The film argues — persuasively, I think — that President Eisenhower’s 1961 warnings about the “military industrial complex” have largely come true.
Why are we in Iraq? As the film shows, most citizens have only the foggiest notion. The invasion had little to do with Bush rhetoric about “spreading freedom” and finding weapons of mass destruction.
Instead, the film argues, our intervention in Iraq, as in many other past conflicts, had a lot more to do with the incestuous ties among the arms industry, Congress and the military, who work together to justify and fund America’s vast and highly profitable (for some) arsenal of weaponry.
Sound far-fetched? See the movie and judge for yourself. Every American, right or left, who cares about our democracy should see this unsettling film.
Has anyone on the blog seen it? What did you think?
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Thank you, Fred C. and Mary R. Koch Foundation, for donating $1 million to the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in the Flint Hills. The grant, announced Tuesday, will go toward paying off a loan used to buy the 11,000 acres in Chase County and will help protect this important prairie ecosystem for generations to come.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
