While the 2024 Kentucky General Assembly is now just a few weeks away, the temperature is beginning to heat up in Frankfurt.

Today, a committee room was overflowing with people as lawmakers heard about draft legislation intended to save people suffering from a mental health issue from hurting themselves or others.

The crisis aversion and rights retention or Car Act is being crafted by Republican State Senator Whitney Westerfield, who has announced he will not seek reelection.

Our Toby Gibbs breaks down today's debate.

The legislation attempts to allow law enforcement to temporarily seize someone's guns if that person poses a threat without violating that individual's rights.

Today, Senator Westerfield described two versions of his proposed bill.

One starts with someone notifying police who then give the person in question two options.

Hand over your guns now and attend a court hearing at about a week.

Or keep your guns and attend a hearing in the next couple of hours.

In version two of the bill, law enforcement goes straight to a judge and asks for the case to be reviewed as quickly as possible.

Speaking in favor of the proposed bill was Whitney Austin, executive director of the Whitney Strong Foundation, who we heard from on this program yesterday.

She was shot multiple times at a bank in Cincinnati in 2018.

Think about your innocent spouse, your parent, your friend or God forbid, your child.

I am telling you there is nothing that you wouldn't do to prevent them from experiencing this.

A strong opponent of this proposed legislation is Republican Representative Savannah Maddox of Dry Ridge.

Today, she said this bill is a slippery slope that could lead to more gun restrictions in Kentucky.

Whether you call it a red flag, whether you call it an RPO, whether you call it car or any other euphemism, you're still talking about a proposal that at a bare minimum has the potential to violate at least three constitutional rights.

When law enforcement comes to seize the firearms, do they automatically know where to find them?

Are they told where to find them?

Do they dig through the entirety of the house?

Do they sell into the safe?

Do they dig through the barns?

Do they dig through the cars?

Do they tear apart the Fourth Amendment in the process?

I think the question then leads to where we would be in potentially a scenario to have a foot in the door for a registry.

State Representative Jason Nabors, a Republican from Louisville, also raised concerns about this bill, saying it would infringe on someone's constitutional rights based only on a prediction that they might hurt someone.

Senator Westerfield responded saying there are already reasonable limits on our constitutional rights.

But if you knew that the shooter at the bank in Louisville in April was going to go and shoot all those people, if you knew in advance, I don't think anybody in here would arm him.

Do we have to make some best guess based on a list of factors, based on concerns raised by people who know that individual?

That's the best that we've got.

If you've got two different solutions, man, I'm all ears.

We have.

The law has to allow us to protect people in a way that honors the Constitution, but protects people at the same time.

It's not an unlimited right.

It's just it's just not.

And neither are the other constitutional rights.

There are limits and lines drawn for all of them.

We got to figure out where the line needs to be drawn here.

State Senator Karen Burg spoke in favor of this proposal.

Her transgender son took his own life last year.

Today, speaking through tears, Senator Berg said she meets weekly with others who have lost a loved one to suicide and tried to describe the pain she and others feel.

And it is unfathomable.

And if we could do one thing in this state to prevent one parent from having to go through that, it is worth it.

Senator Westerfield said he knows there are flaws with each version of his bill and said he's open to working with anyone who wants to help.

For Kentucky Edition, I'm Toby Gibbs.

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