On Friday, state lawmakers in Kentucky will hear more about a bipartisan bill aimed at curbing gun violence ahead of its formal introduction into the 2024 General Assembly that starts in January.

A major force behind the legislation is Whitney Austin, a mass shooting survivor who has been an advocate for gun reform and gun safety since she was shot a dozen times in a Cincinnati mass shooting in 2018.

Our Kelsey Starks sat down with her to learn more about the proposed legislation.

It's called crisis aversion and rights retention or car.

And it would allow for the temporary removal of firearms for someone in crisis.

Whitney Austin is the founder of the Whitney Strong organization.

Here to explain what is at stake at this meeting.

This is an important meeting this week.

Yeah, absolutely.

We're really excited after four years to get another chance to bring car into the conversation.

So in our state, we have a problem.

We have people dying to suicide by firearm.

We have people dying in mass violence.

And we've yet to really come together to find a solution to prevent it.

And that's what car is all about.

And so we're excited to have the opportunity to have a conversation.

Tell us what you think about the new proposals we're putting forth on the table to balance both the Second Amendment and our need to personal and public safety.

So we're excited and we're hopeful that lawmakers are willing to participate and.

So that conversation happens this week.

What is in the proposal as it stands now, and how do you identify someone who's in crisis?

Yeah, So the the bill is going to continue to evolve.

A lot of that will be based upon the feedback that we receive in the hearing.

But at a very base level, what we're talking about is gun owners who are in crisis and gun or gun owners that are very specifically making threats to harm themselves or to harm others, and coming at it from a very compassionate approach that says we want to help you.

We want to press pause on this crisis moment as it's playing out.

We want to get you the help that you need because something is going on internally that has gotten you to this point and then just get you back to a place in which gun ownership is safe.

So this process is called car.

It's a civil process and it is done with gun owners in mind.

And so that's what we'll be discussing in the hearing.

And again, I think it's going to continue to evolve because it really matters to us.

The feedback that the elected officials have and the key stakeholders in this process for how we do it right for Kentucky and how we do it right for gun owners.

So you have Senator Whitney Westerfield, a Republican sponsoring this bill, and Democratic Senator David Yates, as a co-sponsor.

And you've always said this is a it should be a bipartisan issue, and you're really coming at it from both sides.

And so how is this bill different from past attempts to get some sort of legislation out there?

Yeah, that's definitely who we are as an organization.

We only want to work in a way that pulls both sides into the conversation because that's how you get to the best solutions.

And so what makes a card different than any other proposal out there that seeks to solve the same problem is that dialog?

Is that intentional step of making sure we listen to both sides of the coin?

And so there are a lot of things in CAR today that are different, making sure that there is a very narrow path for who can request these orders, and that's law enforcement making sure that there's an opportunity for a non cohabitating family member or friend to petition the court to hold the firearm for the person that's going through a crisis moment, making sure that we center all of this.

On helping the gun owner and those are just some examples, but there are more that are in consideration at this point that we're going to put on the table during the hearing.

And so we feel like what we've created is custom and unlike anything else in this country.

And knowing and I know this, I know that that elected officials on both sides of the political aisle, they want to help.

They're not okay with suicide disproportionately impacting rural areas.

They're not okay with mass violence playing out and what happened at Old National Bank here in Louisville.

And so this is their opportunity to be a part of solving the problem.

You've been at this for quite some time.

How do you feel your chances are in this session getting something passed?

I'm really hopeful.

I think that people care.

I think that they're ready to have a conversation and to participate.

I know that we have a lot of support across the state and specifically a lot of support from victims and loved ones who were impacted by April 10th.

And so I'm really hopeful that this is the moment in which we all recognize we've got to do something because no one is immune to gun violence, not people in rural areas, not people in urban areas.

And we've got to do something to protect those we love.

All right.

Well, we'll be watching.

Thank you so much for being here.

That proposed bill will be discussed at a joint legislative interim meeting of the Judiciary Committee.

That's this Friday, December 15th at 10 a.m.. Back to you.

Thank you, Kelsey.

And we will be showing that meeting on our Kentucky Channel and online at Katie Borg.

You can follow it along live and then we'll bring you a summary of that meeting tomorrow night on Kentucky Edition.