Beshear calls for ‘red flag’ gun law in aftermath of Dayton, El Paso shootings
Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear called for legislation to help prevent Kentuckians who may be a harm to themselves or others from gaining access to guns in the aftermath of two shootings this weekend that left at least 31 people dead.
Beshear, the Democratic nominee for governor, said he supports a “red flag law” in Kentucky, which would allow family members or law enforcement to get a court order to temporarily remove guns from someone who is deemed a potential threat to themselves or others.
“Britainy (Beshear’s wife) and I are praying for those devastated by the shootings this weekend,” Beshear said in a statement to the Herald-Leader. “Nobody should ever feel unsafe in a shopping mall or while out with friends, and we have a duty as Americans to come together, listen to each other and work to end this type of senseless violence.”
Seventeen states have a version of the “red flag law.” Democrats in the Kentucky House and Senate proposed similar legislation during the 2019 law-making session, but the bills stalled in committee and did not receive a vote.
Instead, the Republican-led legislature gravitated toward loosening gun restrictions. The General Assembly passed a bill allowing “constitutional carry” — meaning Kentuckians don’t need a permit to carry a concealed gun within the state — over the objections of gun control advocates and just a year after a shooting at Marshall County High School killed two people.
Gov. Matt Bevin, Beshear’s opponent in the 2019 election, signed the bill into law. Bevin’s campaign did not respond when asked if he supported “red flag” legislation. On Monday, President Donald Trump expressed support for “red flag” laws in a speech condemning the shootings.
The legislature also passed a bill in response to the Marshall County High School shooting, but it focused on increasing security in Kentucky’s schools instead of limiting firearms. The bill included measures to boost mental health counseling for students and bolstering security in schools, but lawmakers did not include funding to support the initiatives. Republican leaders pledged they will revisit funding for the bill in the 2020 legislative session.
Proponents say a “red flag” law could address more than just mass shootings — the Dayton Daily News reported the shooter was kicked out of high school for creating a list of women he wanted to kill — it could also address suicides. A 2018 article in Psychiatry Online found the “red flag” laws reduced the firearm suicide rate in Indiana and Connecticut. Suicides are currently the leading cause of firearm deaths in America.
The Herald-Leader also asked the Beshear and Bevin campaigns if something should be done to curb white supremacists in America. The alleged shooter in El Paso had published an anti-immigrant manifesto before he killed at least 22 people in a Wal-Mart this weekend.
“What happened in El Paso is an appalling act of domestic terrorism,” said Sam Newton, a Beshear spokesman. “Andy believes that as a country we need to call out hate. As he said over the weekend, we have to stop with the us versus them rhetoric; there should only be an us.”
The Bevin campaign did not respond. In the past, Bevin has blamed “a culture of death in America” for shootings, pinning much of the blame on the entertainment industry. On Sunday, he used a familiar line in his response to the shooting on Twitter, calling the problem cultural and spiritual.
“Yet another heartbreaking tragedy unfolded last night in our neighboring state of Ohio...” Bevin said. “We have a cultural and spiritual crisis taking place in America...To think otherwise is to turn a blind eye to reality...May God heal our land...”
Beshear’s campaign also called for strengthening the hate-crime law in Kentucky. Currently, the law is used to influence sentencing decisions and can be used to extend a person’s prison sentence if a judge determines the crime was primarily committed because of “race, color, religion, sexual orientation, or national origin of another individual or group of individuals or because of a person’s actual or perceived employment as a state, city, county, or federal peace officer, member of an organized fire department, or emergency medical services personnel.”
“He also supports changing how we prosecute hate crimes in Kentucky so that it isn’t something that waits until sentencing — if a crime is motivated by hate, people need to see it denounced right away,” Newton said.
This story was originally published August 6, 2019 at 2:10 PM.