KY: Constitutional Carry back in the Running

Kentucky seems a natural match for “permitless” or Constitutional carry. The state is very Second Amendment friendly.  But in the Kentucky Senate, the Constitutional carry bill was pulled from consideration a week ago. It was said that the votes for the bill were not there, and the Republican leadership did not wish to risk a loss.  The Senate bill is SB 7.  SB 7 has now been changed to conform to the House version of Constitutional carry, HB 316.  One of the changes was to limit Constitutional carry to adults who are 21 years old, or older.

A Second Amendment activist who has been intimately involved with the Kentucky Constitutional carry legislation, has insight into the situation.  From “gutshot” at opencarry.org:

Today, Senator Robin Webb introduced a complete and total substitute to SB 7. Senator Web is a democrat from Grayson. The amendment is word for word like HB 316. The only difference between the new SB 7 and the old one is that the new bill requires anyone carrying a concealed weapon to be 21 years old or older. The other wording in the new bill just says the same things that the old bill said, but says it in fewer words. There is one other democrat co-sponsor of SB 7, Ray Jones of Pikeville. There may be some life in this bill yet.

Gutshot says that the learning curve in Kentucky has been steep.

Maybe,but most of the legislators that I have talked to think that Ky. is plowing new ground here. They had never heard of constitutional carry before they saw this years bill and then thought that it was the first one ever written. The ignorance and misunderstandings around this bill are amazing.They don’t believe it when I tell them that other states have had this for years. There has been a terrific learning curve and we haven’t caught up with it yet.

The Constitutional carry bills keep the current permit system in place.  Kentucky is one of the states where a carry permit serves as an alternate to NICS checks for firearm sales from gun dealers. A permit is useful for carry in other states that have reciprocity with Kentucky.

The Kentucky Senate consists of 11 Democrats and 27 Republicans. That ratio is the same as in 2015.

The Kentucky House consists of 36 Democrats and 64 Republicans, a dramatic reversal from 2015, where the House had 53 Democrats and 46 Republicans.

The Kentucky Governor is Matt Bevin.

The Kentucky legislature has a very short session in odd numbered years.  In odd numbered years, the legislature is limited to 30 days in session, and the session must end by March 30th.  If Kentucky is going to pass Constitutional carry this year, they will need to get busy.  Yesterday’s strike and insert amendment to SB 7 shows that it can happen.

©2017 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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