On Friday, 1 March, 2019, Constitutional Carry, SB 150, passed the Kentucky House with a vote of 60-37. On 14 February, two weeks earlier, SB 150 passed the Kentucky Senate, 29-8. The bill was watched intently by Second Amendment supporters. It passed the House just before 1 p.m. When Governor Bevin signs SB150 into law, Kentucky will become the third state this year to pass a Constitutional Carry, or “permitless” carry bill in 2019. Kentucky will become the 16th state with Constitutional Carry.
Now the bill goes to Matt Bevin, the strongly conservative governor of Kentucky. Governor Bevin is widely expected to sign the bill into law. Matt Beven was given an endorsement by Gun Owners of America in his governor’s race.
Governor Matt Bevin has said he will sign Constitutional Carry. From wkyt.com:
Gov. Bevin said Friday afternoon to Gray TV that he would sign the bill.
“It doesn’t break new ground. It simply says that people do indeed have the right to keep and bear arms,” said Gov Bevin. “… For those people who are offended at this idea and don’t like it, there are other places in America where they could live.”
Gov. Bevin also said he is a concealed carry gun owner and that this bill is a constitutional carry bill.
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem signed SB47, South Dakota Constitutional Carry into law on 31 January, 2019. She signed the bill only a week after passage. That is considered to be very fast as these things happen. Noem quickly kept her campaign promise. Noem set the stage for Oklahoma and Kentucky.
Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt likely set records when he signed the Oklahoma Constitutional Carry bill just two hours after it was passe on 27 February, less than a month after the South Dakota bill was passed.
We will see how long it will take Governor Bevin to sign SB 150 for Kentucky.
It is only two months into 2019, and three additional states have joined the Constitutional Carry club.
The term Constitutional Carry means the state has returned the law to a close approximation of what it was when the Bill of Rights, including the Second Amendment, was signed, in 1791. At that point no permits were required to carry deadly weapons—openly or concealed.
How many other states might pass Constitutional Carry in the remainder of the year?
No other state is as far along as Kentucky. Alabama has a Senate Judiciary committee hearing scheduled on their Constitutional Carry bill, SB4, for 3 March, 2019.
Several other states have bills in the legislative works.
It is possible that one or two more states could pass Constitutional Carry bills in 2019.
The 15 states that have passed Constitutional Carry are:
- 1791: Vermont has had Constitutional Carry as long as the Bill of Rights existed.
- 2003: Alaska passed Constitutional Carry to restore the exercise of Second Amendment rights.
- 2010: Arizona passed Constitutional Carry.
- 2011: Wyoming passed Constitutional Carry.
- 2013: Arkansas passed Act 746 into law. It is effectively Constitutional Carry. Some county prosecutors threaten prosecution, but it has not happened.
- 2015: Kansas, and Maine became Constitutional Carry club members.
- 2016: Idaho, Missouri, West Virginia, and Mississippi became Constitutional Carry states.
- 2017: New Hampshire, and North Dakota passed Constitutional Carry.
- 2019: South Dakota and Oklahoma passed Constitutional Carry.
Kentucky is waiting for Governor Matt Bevin’s signature.
Will your state be the next to pass Constitutional Carry? What would it take to get the law passed in your state? Share your answers in the comment section.
©2018 by Dean Weingarten
Sign up for K-Var’s weekly newsletter and discounts here.
It’s heartening to see the growing number of states which are finally going back to ‘Constitutional Carry’ in this country, and I applaud the work that has gone into putting people’s rights and their personal safety before the paranoia that the ignorant anti-American leftist gun-grabbers Like Chris Murphy and Michael Bloomberg have been trying to sell to the under-educated classes in our country. Whipping up the emotions of folks who have no idea that honest law abiding people do have an absolute right to own/carry a weapon for self defense is so typical of this crowd. These law-abiding folks are willing to face down a criminal element that’s infected our neighborhoods everyday! They are the one thing that stand between us and falling prey to gun-wielding thugs and they have literally nothing to do with the continual increase in gun-related crime in this country. This is by the way a documented fact and is easily backed up with FBI crime stats. It’s unfortunate that these facts mean nothing to the leftists who would rather sell fear than use common sense to deal with this issue! Our Constitutional values in this country make no room for the disgusting manipulation of facts that low-life liberals insert into this debate, and their suggestion that individual American patriots were never guaranteed these rights in the first place only indicates an inability on the part of these nitwits to comprehend the plain language in which our US Constitution was written in.
God Bless America!