While many localities in California are trying to charge hundreds of dollars (and in some cases, more than $1,000) in order to obtain a concealed carry license, lawmakers in Kansas are poised to remove all of the state-imposed of the fees that come with applying for a license. On Wednesday, HB 2412 cleared the state House by wide margins and headed to the state Senate for consideration. The 91-33 House vote doesn’t guarantee Senate success, but it’s a very good sign for what would be a truly terrific law.

If signed into law, this bill would amend the Personal and Family Protection Act to get rid of fees paid by those who have applied for a concealed carry license (CCL) or who are seeking renewal of the license. No fees would be required from applicants except to cover the cost of taking fingerprints, according to a supplemental note on HB 2412.

Current law requires a total of $132.50 for CCL issuance fees. Of that, $100 goes to the state attorney general and the rest is payable to the sheriff of the county where the applicant lives. The $100 charge to the attorney general would be dropped if HB 2412 is signed into law by Governor Laura Kelly. The $32.50 in county costs would stay in place.

I’d love to see those county fees disappear as well, but the $32.50 the counties charge to run a background check is at least fairly reasonable. Heck, it’s less than the $50 I pay for my Virginia concealed carry license, and worlds away from the hundreds of dollars in fees that California cities like La Verne and Santa Monica are imposing on gun owners.

Kansas is already a Constitutional Carry state, but many gun owners may still want a concealed carry license for reciprocity purposes. HB 2412 would be a boon to them, but it would be a big help for gun owners in other states as well; serving as an ideal counter-argument to the high cost of carrying imposed in states like California, New York, and New Jersey.

It’s also great to see legislation from a freshman lawmaker getting such strong support, especially since the state representative who introduced the bill is a Second Amendment activist herself. Rep. Rebecca Schmoe has been a member of the D.C. Project for years, and sat down with Bearing Arms last year when she announced her candidacy for state representative to explain why she was running for office.

Schmoe’s  legislative district is 59 and the currently seated House member just decided to not run again. Being politically active, Schmoe asked the GOP in Kansas about what the game plan was. The answer was the GOP was seeking a conservative that respects the Constitution. With that Schmoe said “If you give me the support, I’ll do it.”

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She further discussed how being a public servant was never supposed to be a fulltime, life-long career, but rather service to our communities, states, and federal government. Most poignant is that Schmoe observed that our politicians after serving in positions in government are supposed to return to their regular lives and then live under the laws that they’ve created.

Schmoe mentioned the importance of advocacy, noting “Really all that I would add in is that we need more of this, we need more people who are invested. Whether it is authors who are writing books, whether it is content creators, for social media, whether it is advocates, or something else, in the liberty movement, we need more people to step up and run for these positions.” Well, Rebecca Schmoe’s sentiment is received, as well as the fact that she’s putting her money where her mouth is.

Schmoe has been an incredibly effective activist for the right to keep and bear arms for well over a decade, and I’m glad to see that she’s having similar success in her first year as a legislator. Kansas gun owners are lucky to have advocates like her in the statehouse, and I hope the state Senate soon follows the House’s lead and sends HB 2412 to the governor for her signature. Every state should be looking at making it as easy as possible for we the people to exercise our fundamental right to bear arms in self-defense, and Kansas has the opportunity to lead the way for others to follow.