Now more teenagers who commit a crime using a gun could be tried as an adult.

Under a bill that cleared the full Senate.

Senator Matthew Deneen of Elizabeth Town is the sponsor of Senate Bill 20.

It requires that teens 15 and older who are charged with committing a felony where they're gone be prosecuted as an adult.

An amended version of the bill adopted on the Senate floor yesterday clarifies that county and Commonwealth's attorneys would have some discretion and could bump a case back down to juvenile court if they choose.

When you hold a gun to someone's head, whether that gun is fired or not, the trauma of that victim needs to be considered.

We owe the victims of these gun related felonies Justice by holding these perpetrators accountable.

Kentucky law enforcement groups backed the bill, but not all lawmakers were on board, including Republican Senator Whitney Westerfield.

He argued the bill reverses a three year old policy that instructed the courts to look at ten factors when considering to prosecute a juvenile as an adult.

Now, if there was evidence to say to show that either in Hardin County and Christian County or in the state at large, that there were some rash of these cases with the most violent charges that kept coming before the district court judge.

And the district judge just kept categorically saying, you know what, I'm not going to send this up.

Maybe that'd be worth talking about.

But there's not one whit of evidence that that's happening.

We're robbing the judges and the prosecutors of the discretion.

We were allowing them to use every single day.

Ultimately, Senate Bill 20 passed by a vote of 25 to 9 and one pass vote.

That was yesterday.

The bill is now in the possession of the House for consideration.

There.