Senator Thompson: Protecting the 2nd Amendment is only the Start
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Protecting the 2nd Amendment is only the Beginning of our Challenges, Mike Thompson Says
State Senator addresses members of Mill Creek at October membership meeting
While the vocal attacks on the right to bear arms enshrined by the second amendment are obvious to politically engaged members of Mill Creek Rifle Club, they are just the tip of a more dangerous iceberg, Kansas 10th District Senator Mike Thompson told members of the club at the regular membership meeting October 1.
“All of the rights listed in the Bill of Rights to me are very important,” he said. “And all seem to under threat today to some degree…. I see the trouble the country is in.”
Thompson appeared before the regular membership meeting by invitation of the board, to discuss issues important to local Kansas citizens, from global warming skepticism to economic development and tax policy, to protection of personal freedom enumerated in the Constitution.
“Too many of the things I see being done in state government, if it were the private sector, they would have been scrapped long ago as inefficient, impractical, and incabable of ever paying off the taxpayer’s interest,” Senator Thompson noted. He says he has long been a champion for transparency in government, to ensure citizens can meaningfully evaluate and judge the effectiveness of their government. It concerns him that too many of those same citizens seem to be disengaging with the political process today, abandoning the average American’s historical willingness to at least take a stance and make an attempt to convince others, even those on the opposite of the political spectrum, to accept their beliefs. Today, it seems according to Thompson, people aren’t even interesting in defending their positions.
“It’s almost as if they’ve completely checked out,” he says, “believing that as long as their own lives are just OK, they see no real need to engage. That is unfortunate.”
Thompson listed the 2nd amendment related accomplishments the Republican-led Kansas legislature has enjoyed during his term in office, including:
- The 2023 legislation to remove the $100 Concealed Carry License fee payable to the Attorney General, the $16 fee paid to the Kansas Department of Revenue for issuance and renewal of the CCL card, and the $25 license renewal fee and the late fee of $15 for the failure to renew.
- The 2023 House Bill 2304, which would have helped local public school districts establish grade-appropriate curricula guidelines to teach firearm safety to students of all ages, in order to reduce the risk of accidents. Although the bill passed both chambers of the state legislature with overwhelming bipartisan majorities, it was eventually vetoed by Kansas Governor Laura Kelly.
Thompson spent more than 40 years as a as a well-known figure on two Kansas City television stations (KCTV5 and WDAF), winning numerous broadcast awards and recognitions before retiring in 2018. A U.S. Navy veteran, he was assigned as a weather observer/forecaster aboard the aircraft carrier USS Lexington until 1979. He began his television career in Oklahoma City and later moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, before coming to Kansas City in 1983. Since his election to the state senate, he has emerged as a key leader on several important issues as chairman of the Utilities Committee and Federal & State Affairs Committee.

He urged Mill Creek members to stay involved, particularly in the upcoming general election on November 5. He called it a critical election, crucial in helping “push back the blue tide” in suburban Johnson County. He notes his challenge is to overcome the massive spending to underwrite some candidates by outside interests, that his district has witnessed the largest injection of “George Soros dollars” of any in the state. His solution is to walk every neighborhood in his district between now and election eve, meeting constituents where it matters—at their doorsteps.
“It’s tough,” he recognizes, “and it is hard work. But we are fighting to preserve these districts. We face two more years of Laura Kelly,” he says, and the only guarantee that sensible policy will be enacted—from gun rights protections, to sensible energy policy to protecting small business and sane property taxation—is to achieve a supermajority capable of over-riding future anticipated executive vetoes.
Thompson encouraged Mill Creek members, regardless of their political positions, to avail themselves of the tradition of political involvement.
“You have to be watchful, and then you have to show up,” he said. Nothing is more effective in moving forward legislation and policy than a constituent who takes the time and effort to show up in person and tell a personal story about how proposed government action affects them, how it changes their lives, for the better or the worse.
“I remain a strong advocate for the 10th amendment [to the U.S. Constitution],” Thompson told the Mill Creek members and guests assembled in the Clubhouse. He sees it as a backstop in preventing further erosion of all individual rights by the federal government. “Our younger generation, especially, just doesn’t seem to understand the long list of freedoms that are being lost.” Beyond attacks on the second amendment, longstanding cherished rights from free speech to secure property are being eroded by progressive politicians.
“I am fighting this fight for the future of my three children and 10 grandchildren,” he says. “I’m doing it for their future, for all our kids’ futures.”