Two people dead. One gunman with a history of domestic violence.
And still, Kentucky legislators couldn’t spare more than 16 minutes Friday to learn about a firearm regulation bill at the end of a two-hour hearing before the state House judiciary panel.
To be fair, the bill, pre-filed for the next legislative session, would have made no difference in the deaths of Vickie Lee Jones and Maurice E. Stallard. It would allow prosecutors to charge adults who don’t secure their guns away from unsupervised children.
The bill was prompted by bloodshed: Two relatives of children who died after finding the gun of a family member presented their case at the hearing.
It was at least the third time such a bill has been filed.
And it cannot pass in Kentucky.
“This is an intense voter base that doesn’t just view guns as tools — they view it as a way of life,” UK political science Associate Professor Stephen Voss said in an interview.
Like the deaths of children who find guns, the Oct. 25 shooting at a Jeffersontown Kroger will not be enough to push the Kentucky General Assembly to pass a regulatory firearm bill, or even seriously consider one, because of public opinion, according to Voss. It likely doesn’t matter which party controls the House or the Senate as of Tuesday.
Despite that, there has been talk of one, presumably doomed, bill that could be filed in response to the Kroger shooting.
State Rep. Joni Jenkins, a Shivley Democrat, is interested in reviving her bill calling for a “red flag law,” which would allow relatives and police to petition a judge to preemptively take away firearms temporarily from a person perceived as dangerous.
Maybe people like accused
