By Teri Carter
Kentucky Lantern
On Jan. 21, as President Trump was giving his speech in Davos — confusing Iceland with Greenland during his absurd pitch as to why the U.S. suddenly needs to annex (a verb) Greenland as a matter of national defense — Kentucky lawmakers were in Frankfort annex (a noun) room 149 hearing about why 18 to 20 year-olds need to be granted legal authority to conceal-carry firearms.
House Bill 312 reads, in part, that it will “authorize the Department of Kentucky State Police (KSP) to issue provisional licenses to carry concealed firearms and other deadly weapons to persons who are 18 to 20 years of age.”
Fast tracking bills continues
I subscribe to Bill Watch on the legislature’s website, so when a bill I’m tracking has a change in status, I am notified. The email notification advising me that HB 312 had been assigned to the House Judiciary Committee arrived at 8 p.m. on Jan. 20, and lo and behold it was already on the committee’s agenda for the next morning at 10 a.m.
The League of Women Voters wrote just a few weeks ago, on Nov. 13, about the Kentucky legislature’s penchant for fast-tracking legislation, stating they support “informed and active citizen participation in government. We remind our elected officials that they work for the people, were elected to represent the people, and must give the people opportunities to understand and give input on legislation that affects us.”
It was 14 hours between the time the public was notified that HB 312 had been assigned to a committee and the bill being heard.
In the committee meeting, it took 10 minutes for the HB 312 to be presented, discussed, voted on and passed.
No citizen spoke against HB 312. How could they? Even those of us who know enough to get alerts from the legislature’s Bill Watch system do not have enough time to read a bill, prepare a statement, get off work and drive to Frankfort before it is too late.
This is the very definition of fast-tracking.
And it is undemocratic.
The danger of concealed-carry for 18-20 year olds
Imagine a bunch of teenagers conceal-carrying loaded guns to a party, getting into a drunken fight, and pulling out their guns.
Imagine a teenage girl in her college dorm room with a boy, and him pulling out a gun when she refuses to have sex. Or imagine that same girl in her dorm room, pulling out a gun to defend herself against a more powerful boy and the two of them fighting over the gun.
Imagine loaded handguns concealed in thousands of backpacks on college campuses all over Kentucky: guns in your kids’ college classrooms, guns at frat parties and house parties, guns left in drawers and desks and under beds in dorm rooms.
Similar legislation was presented last March in the form of Senate Bill 75, sponsored by state senator Aaron Reed.
After Reed’s presentation during the Senate Judiciary Committee, state Sen. Danny Carroll — who spent two decades as a police officer — voted no in committee, saying, “I personally do not see anything to gain by passing this bill, and that’s from 24 years [as a] law enforcement officer. You know, you’re always taught to assume that everyone is carrying a concealed weapon, mainly with the segment of society that law enforcement often deals with, and I think this is just going to kick that up to another level and they are going to be carrying concealed.”
Carroll continued, “The idea of people carrying a concealed weapon, who may not even know how to shoot that weapon, is terrifying.”
And yet even after their fellow GOP colleague — with a career in law enforcement — made such a stark and alarming argument, SB 75 passed easily out of committee.
Thankfully, it never made it to the House.
Until now.
One of the arguments for this year’s HB 312 — I recall the same argument being made last year — is that 18-year-olds can join the military and carry firearms. What they do not mention, of course, is the extensive training and constant practice required in the military, and that soldiers are not allowed to just carry their guns around willy-nilly because they feel like it.
The military has rules. Strict rules. The general public does not.
House Bill 312 is a dangerous bill, whether it requires training or not. House Bill 312 will encourage kids to conceal-carry firearms because they think it’s cool.
A Kentucky teenager doesn’t need a concealed firearm any more than the United States needs Greenland.
As Sen. Carroll said about the similar bill filed last year, HB 312 is terrifying.
Originally published by Kentucky Lantern. Republished under Creative Commons license.
