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Legal Information: Kansas

State Gun Laws

Updated: 
November 15, 2023

I am a victim of domestic violence and the abuser has a gun. Is this legal?

Kansas state law says that it is illegal for the following people to have a firearm:

  • a person who is addicted to, and illegally using, drugs;
  • a person who is/was mentally ill or an alcohol or drug abuser and subject to involuntary commitment for care and treatment;
  • someone under age 18, unless the barrel of the gun is at least 12 inches long;
  • someone who is a fugitive from justice, which means that the person knows that there is a warrant issued for him/her for committing a felony;
  • an immigrant who is not authorized to be in the United States;
  • someone who, within the past five years, has been convicted of a misdemeanor for a domestic violence offense in Kansas or a similar misdemeanor crime in another state;
  • someone who has a current protection order against him/her (a “respondent”) that meets the following three conditions:
    1. The order was issued after a hearing and the respondent received notice of the hearing beforehand and had the opportunity to participate in the hearing;
    2. The order restrains the respondent from doing any of the following:
      • harassing, stalking, or threatening an intimate partner, the intimate partner’s child, or the respondent’s child; or
      • engaging in other conduct that would place an intimate partner in reasonable fear of bodily injury to himself/herself or his/her child; and
    3. The order:
      • includes a determination (“finding”) by the judge that the respondent represents a “credible threat” to the physical safety of the intimate partner or his/her child; or
      • has terms in it that clearly prohibit the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the intimate partner or his/her child that would reasonably be expected to cause bodily injury;1
  • a person who has been convicted as an adult, or adjudicated as a juvenile offender, of:
    • a “person felony,” which includes various drug crimes listed in Kansas Statutes § 21-36a01 through § 21-36a17; or
    • a violation of the Uniform Controlled Substances Act prior to July 1, 2009;
  • a person who has been convicted as an adult, or adjudicated as a juvenile offender, of a “person felony” other than the ones referred to above, and:
    • did not use a firearm while committing the crime; and
    • less than three years have passed since completing the sentence;
  • someone who was convicted as an adult, or adjudicated as a juvenile offender, of certain other felonies listed in subsection (3)(A)(i) of Kansas Stat. § 21-6304 and less than eight years have passed since completing the sentence; and
  • someone who was convicted as an adult, or adjudicated as a juvenile offender, of any other “nonperson felony” and less than three months have passed since completing the sentence.2

If any of these situations apply to the abuser, it may be illegal for him/her to have a gun. Also, federal laws, which apply to all states, restrict an abuser’s right to have a gun if you have a restraining order against him/her that meets certain requirements. Go to Federal Gun Laws to get more information.

1 Kan. Stat. § 21-6301(a)(10), (a)(13), (a)(14) - (a)(18), (m)(2)
2 Kan. Stat. § 21-6304(a)