Our community was rocked with the premeditated mass murder of employees of a bank in downtown Louisville. While this incident is still under investigation, it has heightened people's concerns about violent crime in our community, and that we need to "do something".

I agree, and for those seriously interested in a conversation on public policy, I wanted to let you know what the State Legislature is doing and is working on, and provide links to real data to cut through the hype and rhetoric we see in the news.

 1) Mental Health intervention: House Bill 127, expands access to assisted outpatient treatment. This form of mental health treatment is a partnership between the courts, the health care system and the people of Kentucky. It allows the courts to order outpatient care for individuals with severe mental illness.

 2) School Safety Plans: 2022 SB1 State School Security Marshal roles were established, along with the implementation of various trainings and responsibilities related to these roles. This builds on school safety legislation passed by previous legislatures that focuses on both making our schools safer and less likely to be a target as well as provide mental health services aimed at early intervention. Membership on the Kentucky Center for School Safety (KCSS) Board was re-established, along with requiring KCSS to approve a school security risk assessment tool.

School Resource Officers (SROs) are to be assigned to each school, funding permitting.

Other requirements regarding school building access, suicide prevention training, active shooter training, trauma-informed approaches to education, school counselors, student-involved trauma, terroristic threatening and an anonymous reporting tool are also outlined in the Act.

 3) Louisville Juvenile Detention Center: Many Louisville homicides and shootings are related to gang violence perpetrated by minors under 18. 

 4) Student Discipline: HB538 requires students who commit or threaten assault to be suspended from the classroom for 12 months and put in an alternate program.

 https://www.wkyt.com/2023/02/28/bill-dealing-with-student-discipline-passes-ky-house-committee/

 Unfortunately, we live in a violent world, with a seemingly endless supply of "bad guys" - crazy/evil people with no regard for human life who will kill wantonly.

We must defend our most vulnerable citizens, and people of good intentions differ on how to get that job done.

Mass killings (4 or more victims) are actually 20-30 times more likely to happen at home, perpetrated by a family member or someone the victims know, than in a school. We would make a tragic mistake to focus only on the public mass killings, as they are a symptom of a much larger problem.    https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/graphics/2022/08/18/mass-killings-database-us-events-since-2006/9705311002/

We have over 120 school age youth in Louisville that get shot every year, and this is an epidemic of violence that threatens to spread inside of school buildings and bus stops. https://www.wlky.com/amp/article/homicide-records-broken-for-louisville-123-children-shot-in-2021/38650027

Louisville's Pegasus Institute (a “think tank”) is a good source for data related to violent crime, and solutions. https://www.pegasuskentucky.org/violent-crime-city-data-homicides

 America's Founders clearly saw the need for citizens to be armed to defend themselves from both tyrannical governments (they just fought a war to free themselves from England), as well as defend themselves from violent criminals and thieves.

Our neighbor to the north, Canada, says that their citizens have no right to defend themselves with guns, and can only use them for hunting and target shooting.

We need to enforce the laws we have, not ignore them and hope for a peaceful outcome; violent criminals will not obey gun laws in any case.

 - We have Federal background check laws to prevent criminals, drug users and the mentally ill from buying guns - we need to enforce those laws vigorously (the Feds are not doing a good job with that). Here is the form and the questions people must answer under felony penalty for falsification.

- Prosecutors routinely "plea bargain" away the weapons charges on violent criminals, and those need to be applied to keep violent criminals locked up longer

- Violent criminals are being released without bail and frequently commit other crimes upon release - this must stop

- Lax enforcement by urban police chiefs have allowed young people to "learn" that they can commit violent acts, burn and loot with impunity, so why would we expect them to not commit other violent acts?

Address: PO Box 74

Phone: (502) 276-5213