The rally drew attention to Kentucky’s rising rates of gun violence over the past decade. Gun homicides have increased in the state 118 percent since 2012, compared to a 73 percent increase nationally. Speakers included elected officials, community activists, and survivors of gun violence.
Lynsey Sugarman is the local co-lead for the Lexington chapter of the grassroots organization “Moms Demand Action”. She says, in Kentucky, suicides account for 61 percent of all gun deaths.
“And we’ve been talking today about a crisis aversion rights retention bill and that would be a way to deal with people with mental health issues and temporarily, with due process, take the guns away from somebody who is presenting a risk to themselves or to others,” said Sugarman. “And in states that have enacted these kinds of laws, they have successfully reduced their suicide rates.”
Kentucky’s SB13 is one such “red flag” or “extreme risk” bill. It aims to de-escalate emergency situations by giving law enforcement the ability to temporarily remove a firearm from people exhibiting an intent to harm themselves or others.
Senator David Yates, the bill’s sponsor, says he believes the approach is a commonsense, nonpartisan measure.
“I think we can have a balanced approach,” said Yates, “Where you balance second amendment rights and a culture that embraces guns and, at the same time, protect the public from someone in a mental health crisis.”
Representative Lindsey Burke, a Lexington Democrat, is the sponsor of another gun reform bill - House Bill 240, a “safe storage” bill which requires firearm owners to lock away - or lock down - their guns when not in use. She says she feels legislators often treat the second amendment as sacrosanct, but not the first.
“If we can limit what you can say and how you can say it - and clearly the other legislators here want to limit what our teachers say, they want to limit what our teachers and students hear so, clearly, they believe in limits on constitutional freedoms - then why can’t we have reasonable restrictions on the second?” said Burke.
Guns are the number one killer of children and teens in Kentucky.