FRANKFORT, Ky. — Some state lawmakers want to do more to help people experiencing a mental health crisis.

What You Need To Know

  • State lawmakers intend to file a bill next year aimed at keeping people from hurting themselves or others

  • It’s called a Crisis Aversion and Right Retention bill

  • CARR allows law enforcement to temporarily take someone’s firearms if they are experiencing a mental health crisis

  • Some Republicans believe it infringes on the Second Amendment

During the final interim committee meeting of the year, State Senator Whitney Westerfield, R-Fruit Hill, presented details of a bill he intends to file. Its topic is Crisis Aversion and Right Retention (CARR).

The proposed bill would create a process in which someone experiencing a mental health crisis would have their firearms temporarily taken away. Details of exactly how this would be triggered are still being worked out.

“I tried as a Second Amendment supporter, as a gun owner, former NRA member. I wanted to make sure that it was constitutionally sound,” Westerfield said.

For years Whitney Austin has advocated for this bill’s passage. Austin was shot 12 times during the 2018 Cincinnati mass shooting at a Fifth-Third Bank building. After the shooting, she founded Whitney/Strong, an organization that works on gun law reform.

“On that day, I faced something that I can only describe as hell on earth,” Austin said. “It is time for those, perhaps some in this room, with the tendency to say no or never even before, fully understanding all of the options to think about how we, the collective, can help.”

Austin emphasizes this bill is not an attack on responsible law abiding people, but is rather a means of protecting those who may harm themselves or others.

Twenty-one other states and Washington D.C. have similar laws. 

Renewed calls for a CARR bill resurfaced following the Old National Bank mass shooting earlier this year. In attendance for the meeting was a group of people injured in that shooting.

“For those that are naysayers, I’d say, what’s your solution? Do you think you think it’s okay for someone that’s near a psychotic episode or a break to be armed to the teeth with? With no mechanism for government to protect rights and check on things,” Westerfield said.

Still, some Republicans are not on board with the proposal, including House Majority White Jason Nemes, R-Louisville.

“They’ve done nothing wrong and we are taking their constitutional rights away, perhaps indefinitely. What do you say to that?” Nemes asked.

“It’s not an unlimited right. It’s just, it’s just not and neither are the other constitutional rights. There are limits and lines drawn for all of them. We’ve got to figure out where the line needs to be drawn here,” Westerfield responded.

On support, Westerfield believes there are others in the legislature who would vote for CARR, but have not expressed so publicly.

State lawmakers will begin the 2024 legislative session on Jan. 2, 2024. For a CARR bill to pass, it will face a republican supermajority in both chambers.

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