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Promoted from the diaries by streiff. Promotion does not imply endorsement.
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As the left are discovering all sorts of new ‘rights,’ such as the right to health care, to paid family leave, to a ‘living wage,’ or government-paid abortion and sex change procedures — all ‘rights’ which take money out of the pockets of people who earn it to give to those who do not — we find that when it comes to an actual right, specified in the Constitution, to keep and bear arms, the Democrats are not nearly so supportive.

Fortunately, Republicans control the state legislature and gubernatorial mansion in Kentucky, and Republicans do support our constitutional rights. From the Louisville Courier-Journal:

Kentucky House votes to let people carry concealed guns without a permit

Morgan Watkins, Louisville Courier Journal | Published 2:53 p.m. ET March 1, 2019 | Updated 4:00 p.m. ET March 1, 2019

The Kentucky House of Representatives approved legislation Friday that lets people carry a concealed gun without first getting a permit — or completing a background check and safety training — and sent it to Gov. Matt Bevin for consideration.

The House voted 60-37 to approve Senate Bill 150 despite opposition from the Louisville Metro Police Department and the Kentucky State Fraternal Order of Police, as well as the Kentucky chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, a nationwide organization that’s working to curb gun violence.

“We are supportive of the rights we protect for all citizens but have safety concerns with this bill as it stands,” the Kentucky State FOP said in a tweet Friday before the House voted on SB 150. “We are concerned this bill could have potentially deadly, unintended consequences.”

State Reps. Jerry Miller and Jason Nemes, both Louisville Republicans, voted against the bill along with some other GOP members, while several Democrats voted for it.

The state Senate had previously passed the bill, and Governor Matt Bevin (R-KY) has stated that he will sign the act into law.

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.

“It is not the role of the government to force its citizens to ask for their permission and pay recurrent fees in order to exercise their 2nd Amendment rights,” Rep. Savannah Maddox, R-Dry Ridge said while the bill was in committee.

What other constitutional right, I have previously asked, requires government fees and permission to exercise? When some states imposed poll taxes to vote, the Twenty-Fourth Amendment was passed to prohibit either the Congress or states to condition the right to vote upon the payment of a fee.

Now, the previous concealed carry permit process in the Bluegrass State was not exactly onerous: to obtain a permit under the current law, the applicant must pass a background check, take and pass a day long course, and pay a $60.00 fee.

Open carry is already legal in Kentucky, and the state constitution protects “The right to bear arms in defense of themselves and of the State, subject to the power of the General Assembly to enact laws to prevent persons from carrying concealed weapons.”

Of course, the police, supposedly the protector of our rights, opposed the bill: the Louisville Metro Police Department and the Kentucky State Fraternal Order of Police disapproved of the action. Metropolitan police departments are much happier when only their officers are armed. The police do many good things, but defending the Second Amendment is not one of them. The only real protector of our constitutional rights is the individual, exercising his rights and doing so proudly.
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Cross-posted on The First Street Journal.