FRANKFORT, Ky. (WDRB) -- Police could seek court orders to temporarily remove firearms from people thought to pose an "immediate and present danger" of hurting themselves or others under a bill filed Thursday in the Kentucky legislature.

The measure from chief sponsor Sens. Whitney Westerfield, R-Fruit Hill, respects constitutional rights and puts the burden on police to show why any weapons taken ought not to be returned, he said.

But Westerfield and Sen. David Yates, D-Louisville, acknowledged at a press conference that their "crisis aversion and rights retention" effort faces a challenging path in the Republican-dominated General Assembly, where some lawmakers have shown resistance to any actual or perceived gun control actions.

"It's got a tough uphill climb, and I haven't hidden that at all," said Westerfield, who is not seeking reelection. "We've got to work on getting the right number of votes."

Also joining on as co-sponsors are Democratic senators Cassie Chambers Armstrong and Denise Harper Angel of Louisville; and Reggie Thomas of Lexington, the Senate Democrats' caucus chair. 

Similar bills have failed to gain traction in the past. This year's Senate Bill 13 comes during the first legislative session since last April's mass shooting at Old National Bank in Louisville, where employee Connor Sturgeon shot and killed five people. Sturgeon's family has said he was in treatment for anxiety and depression issues but that there were no "warning signs or indications he was capable of this shocking act."

Westerfield, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said "there's more support than what you're hearing," while Yates, a former Louisville Metro Council president, said his discussions with other lawmakers have been more "open-minded" than in the past.

"The conversations that I've had this year are so much different," Yates said.

The legislation would let law enforcement officers file petitions in local district courts that explain why they're requesting an order to remove the guns. A judge would then review the petition and determine if there is probable cause to grant an order seizing the weapons.

That step would be temporary and occur without giving the owner of the firearms any advance notice.

A judge would then set a hearing within the next six days. The guns' owner would be summoned for that hearing, which would decide whether a longer order should be in place for up to 90 days.

The 90-day order would have to find that a gun owner is a danger to him- or herself or others. Besides ordering law enforcement agencies to hold the weapons, no new purchases could be made until the order expires. 

The order could be challenged every 45 days. It also could be extended after 90 days. 

"This isn't a gun-grabbing bill. This is crisis aversion," Yates said. "This has to do with people who are in a mental health crisis situation who are going to do harm to themselves or others."

"We don’t want to start taking away guns from people who are law abiding citizens. We want to step in temporarily to keep people safe," Westerfield said. "The whole point of this is to try and do something. We want to do something responsible, constitutional, to keep people safe."

Westerfield presented drafts of the bill during a committee meeting in December. On Thursday, he emphasized language that gives people whose guns are temporarily seized a "rebuttable presumption" that the weapons must be returned — in other words, the burden of proof is on the police.

"That rebuttable presumption has to be rebutted every time by the petitioner," Westerfield said, referring to law enforcement. "They've got to show that the issue is either there to begin with – sufficient enough to issue a temporary order or that it's still there."

Senate President Pro Tem David Givens, R-Greensburg, a member of Senate leadership, attended the news conference and told reporters afterward he is "undecided" on the bill.

"I'm a supporter of Second Amendment rights," he said. "I'm also a supporter of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. So finding that balance between those places is what this legislation has to be geared toward."

Kentucky lawmakers host CARR rally

Supporters of Senate Bill 13 rallied in Frankfort on January 25, 2024. The legislation would let police seek court orders to temporarily remove firearms from people thought to pose an 'immediate and present danger' of hurting themselves or others (WDRB photo).

Among those appearing at a press conference for the legislation were Rick Sanders, a former state police commissioner under Republican Gov. Matt Bevin and current chief of the Jeffersontown Police Department.

He emphasized that he is a Second Amendment supporter but that, in his four decades in law enforcement, he's seen traumatic scenes — stepping over students' backpacks following the Marshall County school shooting in 2018 and witnessing a man shoot himself in the mouth — that require a new approach.

Sanders said the bill is "just the beginning" and called on legislators to work together.

"This is not a gun issue. This is a mental health issue," he said. "We have got to do what we can to take guns out of the hands that can hurt ourselves or our children."

Whitney Austin, who was wounded during a mass shooting in Cincinnati in 2018, also is pushing for the legislation, telling a packed room at the state Capitol annex that "we are so much closer than we have ever been."

Cathy Hobart of Shelby County showed up to lend her voice. She said she has sent at least one hundred emails to Kentucky lawmakers, asking for their support.

"We want to save their life, the life of their families, their coworkers, their classmates," Hobart said. "We are not interested in gun grabbing, and it sounds like they have developed that kind of bill."

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