We know one way to stop mass shootings. Why can’t KY discuss it in good faith? | Opinion

After mass shootings, we often hear Republican lawmakers say that what we need to address is mental health.

Ten days before Christmas, Kentucky’s interim judiciary committee held its last meeting of 2023. First on the agenda, the long-anticipated CARR bill — Crisis Aversion and Rights Retention — sponsored by Republican state senator and judiciary committee chair Whitney Westerfield.

CARR proposes a way to temporarily remove firearms from those deemed a danger to themselves or others.

CARR addresses mental health.

And yet, in the up-is-down, down-is-up world that is Kentucky politics, there are those who appear disinterested in discussing mental health.

Days before the bill was even introduced, Rep. Savannah Maddox made statements on WHAS TV similar to those she would repeat at length in the Dec. 15 committee, a hearing in which she appeared bored, disinterested, or both, listing her rote concerns about Second Amendment rights and that she thinks “it’s unconscionable that with a supermajority of 111 [Republicans] out of 138 [state legislators] that we’re even having a discussion about gun control legislation.”

Maddox seems to make the argument that, if your party is in the supermajority, there is no reason to talk to fellow legislators, that there is no work to be done.

But isn’t that why we send them to Frankfort in the first place, to meet in person, to have hard discussions?

If discussion itself is “unconscionable,” as Maddox insists, why do we have a General Assembly at all?

I attended the Dec. 15 interim judiciary meeting about CARR, just as I have sat in more than two dozen similar committee meetings since June. There are typically only a handful of citizens who attend, but we knew in advance that the CARR hearing would be packed. Gun violence is the leading cause of death for American children; an average of 823 Kentuckians die from firearms every year, most of which are suicides; and we expected both survivors and family members of victims of gun violence — including from the Old National Bank mass shooting on April 10 — to be in attendance.

The day before the hearing, Sen. Westerfield shared on X (formerly Twitter) one of the messages he’d received. “CARR ACT. This is not California or New York you RINO piece of shit trader [sic]. Republicans in this state will not tolerate Republicans who act like Democrats.”

Failed treasurer candidate Andrew Cooperrider posted on X, “PSA: For all of you going to the Red Flag Gun Law hearing at the Kentucky Capitol tomorrow, you are legally allowed to open or conceal carry a firearm while in the Kentucky Capitol buildings.”

The morning of the meeting, about fifteen minutes before lawmakers took their seats, I stood in one of the doorways and listened to announcements directing the overflow crowd to two additional rooms where they could watch on video. As I stood there, Maryanne Elliott — the wife of Tommy Elliott, who was murdered at Old National Bank just eight months ago — was stopped by security when she tried to step out for a quick trip to the ladies room. “If you leave,” security told her, “you can’t come back in.”

Mrs. Elliott turned around and silently walked back to her seat.

The security guard is someone I see regularly, someone I say hello to when I attend meetings, so I leaned in and whispered, “That’s Mrs. Elliott, her husband was killed in the Old National Bank mass shooting, she’s been here over an hour and this meeting will be long. She just needs to use the restroom.”

“No exceptions,” he said.

There are times when we are left stunned.

Have we reached the stage where a respected, conservative, Second Amendment supporting, Republican lawmaker — the chair of judiciary, no less — cannot introduce a bill addressing gun violence and mental health without getting messages that he is a “RINO piece of shit”?

Have we reached the stage where elected officials, the alleged adults at the table, refuse to participate in basic discussions?

Have we reached the stage where Kentuckians whose lives have been upended by gun violence cannot attend a hearing at our state capitol without being stuffed into the room with citizens who have been randomly summoned via social media to carry guns, just because they can?

Have we reached the stage where something as simple as a bathroom break for a widow cannot be granted?

The 2024 General Assembly starts in less than two weeks.

The only thing at stake is our humanity.

Teri Carter is a writer and gun control advocate in Anderson County.