Beshear says ball in the Ky. legislature’s court on gun reform

After a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, left 19 elementary school students and 2 adults dead, calls across the country for laws that limit access to guns have increased.

Gov. Andy Beshear said the ability to move the needle on the issue in Kentucky is not his. It’s the Republican-controlled legislature’s, he said.

“Any changes in access to firearms would require a legislative act in Kentucky,” Beshear said. “That would have to be a conversation that legislative leadership would entertain and in recent years, they haven’t entertained any.”

Spokespeople for both statehouse Republican majorities, House and Senate, did not respond to requests for comment on whether or not they would pursue legislation that makes it harder for people in Kentucky to access assault-style weapons like the ones commonly used in American mass shootings.

Beshear was noncommittal on what changes he would actually support – though various ideas such as raising the federal minimum age to buy an assault rifle from 18 to 21, to massive gun buyback programs, to banning the sale of assault rifles altogether have been forwarded nationally.

School safety, however, has been a priority of his administration. Limited entrance to schools – often requiring guests to be buzzed through two doors to enter, or go through the principal’s office – is an initiative he said he’s tried to build on.

On legislative matters, School Resource Officer (SRO) funding is one area where the governor thinks bipartisan progress could be made.

“I supported legislation on SROs in all of our schools, even when there is a reasonable debate about how sometimes that makes certain students feel. I just want in this situation for there to be somebody trained to stop it who’s there every day,” Beshear said.

SROs exist throughout Kentucky, and are technically mandated by the state for every school campus, but aren’t yet affordable for every school district to place on every campus.

House Bill 63, from Rep. Kevin Bratcher, R-Louisville, passed this year to continue to encourage school districts to fulfill that mandate.

The gunmen in Uvalde and in Buffalo, where 10 were killed in a targeted attack on Black people at a grocery store, were both 18 and legally purchased the assault rifles they used to kill people en masse. Kentucky is one of 44 states in the nation where the minimum age to buy such an assault rifle is 18 years old.

Unlike her Republican counterparts, House Minority Leader Joni Jenkins, D-Shively, shared thoughts on how she thinks gun laws should change in the state.

“First, we need to close loopholes and enforce background checks for all firearm purchases, and we need to reinstate the 1994, bipartisan assault-rifle ban, or at least limit sales of these weapons of war to those 21 and older,” Jenkins said, also advocating for a more comprehensive list of those who have been barred from purchasing guns, laws requiring gun owners to keep their firearms more secure and more mental health services.

Few significant changes to gun legislation in Kentucky have passed in recent years, with the exception of a 2019 bill from Rep. Savannah Maddox, R-Dry Ridge, praised by the National Rifle Association (NRA) that allows Kentuckians to carry a concealed gun without a permit.