When it comes to important issues, all opinions should be heard.
Kansas’ controversial Secretary of State Kris Kobach, however, wanted students who participated in a rally against gun violence to shut up and leave.
The ultraconservative Kobach, who’s running for governor, was speaking at a recent pro-gun rally at the Statehouse when he shouted at the Kansas teens to go back to class and study the Second Amendment.
Perhaps Kobach should brush up on the First Amendment and the importance of freedom of speech rather than be so petty and intolerant.
Besides, his interest in higher gun ownership hardly centers solely on the Second Amendment. Such rhetoric rallies his followers, but Kobach has more in mind than the right to bear arms.
He’s on board with the National Rifle Association, which uses supposed assaults on the Second Amendment to drive more gun sales. In 2014, Kansans learned Kobach was a shareholder in an Overland Park firearms manufacturing firm that planned to produce rifles in Kansas based on the AR-15 and AR-10 platform, similar to the military M-16 rifle.
He’s free to pursue whatever business venture suits him — to include the production of high-powered weaponry.
But Kansans don’t have to accept his ongoing political theatrics and numerous failings, especially over proof-of-citizenship requirements that made Kansas an unenviable model of voter suppression. That disgraceful saga has been playing out on a national stage, unfortunately, with Kobach losing time and time again in court over the policies, and all at a cost to the state.
The same mess saw Kobach found in contempt of court (and by a judge appointed by then-President George W. Bush). He also sloppily filed an incomplete legal document with the federal court that included a note stating
