By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
The Louisville, Ky. Metro Council is pushing to convince the General Assembly to “address common-sense gun legislation,” which, according to WAVE News, amounts to doing away with state preemption on firearms regulation, and returning it to local control.
Preemption statutes were adopted in more than 40 states in order to create gun law uniformity from border to border. Such laws prevent what amounted to a checkerboard of gun regulations which frequently contradicted one another the moment someone traveled from one local jurisdiction to another. What may have been allowed on one side of the invisible boundary was prohibited on the other side.
The current state statute says:
“(1)No existing or future city, county, urban-county government, charter county, consolidated local government, unified local government, special district, local or regional public or quasi-public agency, board, commission, department, public corporation, or any person acting under the authority of any of these organizations may occupy any part of the field of regulation of the manufacture, sale, purchase, taxation, transfer, ownership, possession, carrying, storage, or transportation of firearms, ammunition, components of firearms, components of ammunition, firearms accessories, or combination thereof.
“(2) Any existing or future ordinance, executive order, administrative regulation, policy, procedure, rule, or any other form of executive or legislative action in violation of this section or the spirit thereof is hereby declared null, void, and unenforceable.”
Last month, Louisville Councilman Ken Herndon reintroduced a resolution he’s pushed previously, called “Kids Over Guns.” His motivation is to take some sort of action in an effort to combat violent crime. He says “something must be done.”
But that may not go over well with gun rights advocates. While the effort is ostensibly only supposed to apply to Jefferson County—without impacting the state’s other119 counties—such a set-aside for a single county could create problems.
Herndon was quoted by WAVE News contending, “Because we are by far the largest city and we have special circumstances here that we need to address.”
But that’s not how state preemption works. There are no cut-outs which essentially allow for a municipality or a county jurisdiction to set itself up as a “city-state” within a state’s borders.
Of possible concern is another Herndon remark, which might cause some in the firearms community to bristle: “If we do get permission from the state, the first thing that we will do is call Louisville Metro Police Department,” the councilman said. “They are the experts. They can tell us what specific gun laws do work well, do and then we will pursue that.”
