Kentucky Republican wants to lower the legal age someone can own, conceal carry guns

A Republican lawmaker has filed a bill to lower the legal age a Kentuckian can own and conceal carry a gun.

Rep. Savannah Maddox, R-Dry Ridge, filed House Bill 259 Tuesday, which would allow Kentuckians to possess and conceal carry a firearm once they turn 18, down from the current age requirement of 21.

Maddox, a well-established proponent of relaxing Kentucky’s gun laws — she has filed legislation to this end each of her six years serving in Frankfort — said she filed HB 259 because it’s sensible.

“We clearly have no problem sending (18-year-old) adult men and women overseas to defend our nation’s interest,” Maddox said Wednesday morning. “They certainly should have the ability to defend themselves and their families here at home.”

Maddox also noted litigation in other states, including Tennessee, challenging the prohibitions of such laws.

In 2021, a federal lawsuit was filed against the state of Tennessee, arguing that its 21-year-old age limit for firearm possession unconstitutionally deprived younger adults of their right to possess a handgun. As part of a settlement, Tennessee’s attorney general subsequently agreed not to enforce current law, and allow people as young as 18 to legally possess a gun.

Maddox said a lawsuit like this is only inevitable in Kentucky.

So, why not “get ahead of the curve and avoid litigation, saving taxpayer dollars, because eventually this will play out in the court system,” she said, if lawmakers don’t change current law and lower the legal age limit.

Last year the Northern Kentucky Republican filed a bill to prevent colleges and universities from passing any policies that bar anyone over the age of 21 from carrying a concealed weapon on campus — a setting where they are otherwise banned.

The Council for Post-secondary Education, as well as leadership from each public college and university, unanimously opposed the bill, which won committee approval but never received a floor vote in the House.

A staunch 2nd Amendment defender, Maddox was lauded by the National Rifle Association in 2019 for working alongside then-Gov. Matt Bevin to pass a law that allows gun owners to carry a concealed weapon without separate permitting or training.

In September, she publicly criticized the Kentucky Medical Association after some of its members recommended, in the interest of public health, that lawmakers consider tightening some of its gun laws.

The association suggested creating a state Office of Gun Safety aimed at reducing firearm-related deaths, as well as enacting red-flag laws, or extreme risk protection orders to temporarily remove guns from people who are deemed by a court as a risk to themselves or others.

Maddox tweeted that the Kentucky Medical Association was “coming for your guns” and called red-flag laws “unconstitutional.”

Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear has called for legislators to pass similar laws multiples times since he became governor — as far back as 2019 after two mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, left dozens of people dead, and again last year, after a gunman in downtown Louisville killed five people.

Maddox has also opposed efforts, even from within her own party, to enact red-flag laws. Though the commonwealth currently has no such laws on the books, Sen. Whitney Westerfield, R-Fruit Hill, has said he plans to file a bill to this end this legislative session.

This story may be updated.

This story was originally published January 17, 2024 at 1:49 PM.

Alex Acquisto

Lexington Herald-Leader

270-314-6378

Alex Acquisto covers state politics and health for the Lexington Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com. She joined the newspaper in June 2019 as a corps member with Report for America, a national service program made possible in Kentucky with support from the Blue Grass Community Foundation. She’s from Owensboro, Ky., and previously worked at the Bangor Daily News and other newspapers in Maine. Support my work with a digital subscription