Visitors to Kentucky Capitol can carry guns openly or concealed. Policy under review.
Nema Brewer says she can’t wait to take her gun to the Kentucky Capitol next time teachers converge on the legislature to express their views.
“I am giddy y’all. You smell it? It’s freedom and gunpowder!” said Brewer on her Twitter account after she found out from media reports this week that participants in a Capitol rally for gun rights were allowed to prominently carry their weapons in the seat of state government.
According to Kentucky State Police, visitors to the Capitol complex must enter through a metal detector and declare any firearms, but they’re free to then carry those guns, either openly or concealed, throughout the buildings.
Brewer said in an interview that thousands of teachers who swarmed the Capitol in the last two years to offer their views on education and pension legislation were not allowed to bring signs on sticks into the building “because they were concerned the sticks could be used as dangerous weapons.”
“Many of us were surprised when we learned this week that we couldn’t bring in sticks but people could bring in their semiautomatic rifles,” she said. “Something doesn’t seem right.”
Brewer said many teachers also had their purses searched for firearms.
Kentucky State Police Sgt. Joshua Lawson, commander of the public affairs branch, confirmed for the Herald-Leader that anyone can openly carry a gun on the Capitol grounds and in its buildings as long as they legally posses the firearm.
He also said those people may carry a concealed weapon in those places “because Kentucky no longer requires a permit to carry concealed.”
Last March, then-Gov. Matt Bevin signed into law a bill approved by the legislature that lets people carry a concealed gun without getting a permit or completing safety training.
“I just didn’t think you could carry a gun at all into a legislative committee hearing or in the House and Senate,” said Brewer. “Now we know differently.”
Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, said Friday that he feels “comfortable” with the gun policy but that he has had “preliminary discussions” with Gov. Andy Beshear, House Speaker David Osborne and other legislative leaders about public safety policies related to events in the Capitol “that can stir emotion.”
Stivers said he also wants to include Kentucky Supreme Court Chief Justice John D. Minton Jr. in the discussions so all three branches of government in the Capitol can have input into the policies he hopes are put in place this session.
Those policies would deal with guns, Stivers said.
Prior to this week’s pro-gun rally, Stivers said, he talked with Beshear about “what protocols are appropriate to be consistently applied, understanding everyone’s right to be here and express their opinion.”
“That has to be done in conjunction with public safety for ingress and egress so we don’t run into problems like that with (state Rep.) Brandon Reed,” Stivers said.
He was referring to April 2018, when Reed, R-Hodgenville, became ill on the House floor during debate on legislation and paramedics had difficulty getting to the lawmaker in a Capitol crowded with protesters.
Stivers said the “overall security of the Capitol lies with the executive branch, but we all want to work together on this.” He said he was not aware that teachers were not allowed to bring signs on sticks into the Capitol.
Beshear said Friday that any review of safety policies will always “have to start with, this is a building that is open to every Kentuckian.”
“With that, we want to foster a safe environment not just for those who work here but those who come up here,” he said. “We are going to review the policies and make sure they are reasonable.”
Former Gov. Paul Patton banned concealed guns from the Capitol in 1996 after the General Assembly passed a concealed-carry bill. But Patton’s order was reversed by the 1998 General Assembly.
KSP’s Lawson said he does not have an exhaustive list of items prohibited from the Capitol but it would include such things as explosive devices.
A state regulation dealing with the use of state-owned facilities — 200 KAR 3:020 — lists several times not permitted in state buildings.
They include equipment that fails to conform with local fire codes, skateboards, roller skates, roller blades, bicycles, mopeds, motor bikes, hover boards and any personal property that interferes with any electrical or mechanical system in a state facility.
This story was originally published January 10, 2020 at 2:01 PM.
