Increasing the criminal penalty for possessing or refusing to surrender any firearm in or on any school property or grounds.

2025-2026 Regular Session

Kansas HB 2324 raises penalties for possessing a firearm on school property and for refusing to surrender one, reclassifying these offenses as felonies, effective July 1, 2025.

Died in Committee

#crimes #punishmentandcriminalprocedure

Purpose / Intent

The bill amends K.S.A. 21-6301 to increase criminal penalties for two weapon-related offenses that occur on school property or at school-sponsored activities:
- Possessing a firearm on school property or grounds; and
- Refusing to surrender or remove a firearm from school property when requested by an authorized school employee or law enforcement officer.

The stated intent is to strengthen deterrence and increase criminal consequences for bringing or retaining firearms in school settings.

Key provisions / changes

Reclassifies the offense of possessing a firearm on school property from a Class B nonperson misdemeanor to a severity level 9 nonperson felony.

Reclassifies the offense of refusing to surrender or remove a firearm from school property when directed by an authorized school employee or law enforcement officer from a Class A nonperson misdemeanor to a severity level 8 nonperson felony.

Effective date: July 1, 2025 (as specified in the bill).

(Note: the statutory text in the file is lengthy and partly truncated; the fiscal note summarizes the core penalty changes above.)

Who would be affected

Individuals (other than law enforcement) who possess firearms on property used for K–12 instruction or extracurricular activities, or who refuse to surrender such firearms when directed.

Prosecutors, defense counsel (including the Board of Indigents’ Defense Services), courts, and corrections agencies because of the change from misdemeanor to felony-level prosecutions and potential custodial penalties.

School districts and school personnel who make surrender requests; law enforcement responding to school incidents.

Fiscal and system impacts (from Division of the Budget fiscal note, Feb 13, 2025)

Board of Indigents’ Defense Services: increased expenditures for defense counsel and support staff by an unknown amount. Estimated per-case State General Fund cost for appointed counsel: $2,918 to $4,375 (based on 35 attorney hours at prevailing rates). The Board indicates it may need 1.00 FTE attorney and possibly additional support staff depending on the number of additional felony cases.

Kansas Sentencing Commission: potential negligible increase in prison admissions and bed needs.

Department of Corrections: potential negligible operating expenditure increase that could be managed within current resources.

Judiciary: no fiscal effect reported.

County governments: negligible fiscal effect per Kansas Association of Counties.

Procedural / timeline notes

Filed: February 3, 2025 (Kansas version).

Referred to Committee on Corrections and Juvenile Justice: February 10, 2025.

Committee hearings scheduled for February 12 and February 13, 2025 were canceled.

Read first time and referred to Human Services: March 14, 2025.

Bill specifies an effective date of July 1, 2025.

Additional context

Several different states had distinct 2025 measures numbered HB 2324 (Arizona and Illinois versions appear in the document set) addressing unrelated topics (forfeiture/digital assets; corporate law technical change). This summary focuses specifically on the Kansas HB 2324 that proposes changes to K.S.A. 21-6301 (criminal use of weapons on school property).

Bill