By Clay Wirestone | opinion editor
Good morning! The early hours have cooled off here in Lawrence, and if you squint a bit you might spot the approach of fall. Yes, yes, we’re still struggling through August. But some days you can feel a change in air, a shift in the molecules. Or so I tell myself.
Photo by Lisa Spoon via Cowley Courier Traveler
Winfield resident shocked by Kansas lawmaker’s response to her plea for gun safety
TOPEKA — Winfield resident Lisa Spoon emailed every member of the Kansas House to start a conversation about loopholes in state law that allow people convicted of violent crimes to own a gun.
Instead, she received a reply from Rep. Rick Wilborn that she views as “void of compassion.”
Spoon began her email to lawmakers, sent late Thursday, by explaining that she was writing “with a heavy heart and deep frustration” about a mass shooting in her south-central Kansas town of about 12,000 people. Last week, her next-door neighbor shot and killed his wife and their four children before killing himself.
Her email referenced the “critical gaps” in state laws that allow individuals like her neighbor, who have a documented history of violence, to obtain and possess firearms. She urged lawmakers to consider policy changes, such as mandating universal background checks on all gun sales and transfers and considering “threats of violence as a rationale for a warrant, search and removal of guns from a household.”
Wilborn, a McPherson Republican who didn’t seek reelection this year, replied to Spoon, and everybody else, early Friday.
“You folks never miss an opportunity, to promote your gun shaming hypothesis,” Wilborn wrote. “More people are killed by illegals with a criminal record. Please spare me.”
Sherman Smith / Kansas Reflector
Kansas insurance department assists with $29M in consumer recoveries, a 147% increase
TOPEKA — The Kansas Department of Insurance assisted consumers with recovery of $29.2 million from insurance businesses in 2025 to more than double the amount the agency retrieved for policyholders during the previous year.
Getty Images
OPINION
British professor Jason Arday and higher education’s new politics of plagiarism
By Roger Kreuz
The controversy over Arday’s work reflects an ongoing trend of ideological opponents levying plagiarism accusations to undermine one another. I think it’s also worth exploring why such attacks continue to be so enticing — and so effective.
US Supreme Court allows $400M Trump ballroom project to proceed
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump can continue building a White House ballroom for now, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Friday, reversing a federal judge’s order that barred above-ground construction on the grounds of the former East Wing.
Abortion could return to Supreme Court, this time with a focus on women’s health
A federal court ruling out of Idaho has potential implications for exceptions in abortion bans nationwide and could eventually end up before the U.S. Supreme Court to decide.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Kansas Reflector staff will participate in the following free public forums.
3 p.m. Sept. 26, Washburn Library in Topeka. Opinion editor Clay Wirestone will participate in the panel “Why UPK: University Press of Kansas Celebrates 80 Years.” Host: Kansas Book Festival.
2 p.m. Sept. 27, Red Rocks Visitor Center in Emporia. Host: Red Rocks.
7 p.m. Sept. 29, Raven Book Store in Lawrence. Book release event for opinion editor Clay Wirestone’s “Opinionated.” Editor-in-chief Sherman Smith will moderate.
6 p.m. Oct. 12, Riverbank Brewing in Council Grove. Opinion editor Clay Wirestone talks about his book and the latest news. Host: Flint Hills Books.
6 p.m. Dec. 3, Prairie Star Restaurant in Manhattan. Host: League of Women Voters of Manhattan and Riley County.
If you're interested in having us talk in your town, email Sherman Smith at [email protected].
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