Each year as Attorney General, I have proposed legislation to make our state better and then worked cooperatively with legislators to get the job done. This year, I’m particularly grateful for the bipartisan support many of our proposals received. For example:
Getting serious about guns When is America going to wake up? When are our legislators going to get serious about real gun control? Texas should take some responsibility as they recently passed legislation allowing 18 year olds to buy guns, so this young man got them legally. I have some suggestions for them: 1.
The current Kansas legislative session has concluded and our elected officials have returned home. We are now in the middle stages of the process that will decide our future elected leaders.
Each month I want to provide you with regular updates about what’s going on in our nation’s capital and throughout the 4th District of Kansas. Here’s what happened in May.
National attention has turned, once again, to the gun debate following the horrific events at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas last month. One day prior to the school shooting that killed 19 children and 2 adults, the Kansas legislature adjourned without taking action on proposed bills aimed to ban so called “ghost guns”, like the one used in the shooting at Olathe East High School in March of this year.
I read the article in The Newton Kansan: “Voelker brings historic mass to Newton” (June 5 issue). I am a cradle Catholic, and while I appreciate the quaintness of the old Tridentine Mass or Latin Mass; I am thankful I grew-up in the era just after Vatican II’s much needed reforms became a reality. While my parents knew Latin quite well, I do not. I can “follow” the landmarks of key terminology in the Latin Mass, but Latin is a tricky, foreign tongue to me. I can understand the priest better when I attend an English language Mass. “To each, his own.” I am glad the Latin Mass still exists and parishioners have “choice.”
And another sex scandal pops into the news. This time it’s the Southern Baptist Convention, the country’s largest Protestant denomination, cringing in shame upon the recent release of a “bombshell” report detailing two decades of sexual abuse by pastors and other church officials, along with ongoing official coverup of the crimes and denigration of any victims who had the courage to speak up.
Dear Doctors: My 8-year-old nephew is in the hospital with kidney problems. He wants to see the therapy dog who visits the kids on his floor, but my sister says no. How do I reassure her that it’s safe? I worry about interfering, but I’ve read that therapy dogs can help kids in the hospital feel better.
Hello, dear readers, and welcome to the bonus letters column we promised you. We are delighted that you’re keeping our mailboxes full, and we will continue to do our best to stay abreast of your letters.
As we look at the pictures from Uvalde, Buffalo, and other mass shootings, we’re having agonized conversation. It seems inconceivable that “the other side” could look at those same photos yet reach utterly different conclusions about their meanings.