Friday 31 January 2020, Frankfort Kentucky – A gang of masked men in camouflage gear bearing semi-automatic weapons descends on the capital building, bypassing metal detectors at the invitation of security personnel. This wasn’t the plot of a bad hostage-taking movie; it was a group of men, virtually all white it should be noted, welcomed into the state capitol building with open arms, while waving deadly arms.
The group “We Are KY Gun Owners” organized the rally, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported, and the event featured speeches from Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) as well as Dick Heller, the plaintiff in the case over the Washington, D.C. gun ban, District of Columbia v. Heller, that the Supreme Court eventually decided in Heller’s favor.
Parklands shooting survivor and anti-gun campaigner David Hogg called it ‘the biggest display of white privilege’ he’d seen.
There is apparently a loophole in the state’s laws that will means you or I would be put through a metal detector and have items such as umbrellas confiscated before we’re allowed to enter – because they can be dangerous. But if you’re a white 2nd-Amendment-claiming campaigner, you, your mask hiding your identity and your loaded gun will be waived around those same metal detectors.
This is an attempt at intimidating those of us who don’t see the 2nd Amendment as being carte blanche for anyone to have a lethal / semi-automatic, and/or unregistered weapon. This is an affront to every family or friend who lost a loved one in Kentucky to gun violence: and there is no shortage of such people. Anyone who wants a breakdown of some recent Kentucky statistics can look here.
Maybe we should not expect much from a state with Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell as their senators. McConnell is sitting on bills passed to the Senate from the House which would save lives by reforming gun laws – but he won’t let the Senate have a democratic vote on them. The NRA doesn’t favor Rand Paul as much as McConnell: only because the gun group he aligns with the ‘Gun Owners of America’, is considered by many to be even more extreme than Russian-asset NRA.
The current governor of Kentucky Andy Bashear won over his GOP rival by a small number of vote (Note: Your vote can make all the difference!). His Facebook page seems to ignore this incident ever happened.
ACTION:
Ignoring this happened has the same effect as having welcomed it. We will demand Governor Andy Bashear address the issues.
Please contact Kentucky Governor Bashear through one of the channels below and give them the following message, personalized to your liking:
When I saw a mob of masked men virtually invade Frankfort, Kentucky’s capitol building with loaded, semi-automatic guns, I expected they would be arrested for a breach of the peace, unlawful assembly, intimidation. Instead, they were welcomed and told not to bother going through the metal detectors, which anyone else would have to use. While the security at your office building would have confiscated items like umbrellas for being dangerous according to policy, your state has a loophole allowing this intimidatory, dangerous event to have taken place.
I’m looking through news events and your social media pages – and I’m hard pressed to find any comment from you at all. If you ignore it, it has exactly the same impact as if you had welcomed it. I expect to see some kind of a statement from you asap, and to see you tighten loopholes which allow masked men to intimidate others by virtually storming a government office while masked and armed. It is a dark day for America when this extremist view of the 2nd Amendment – the right to a well-regulated militia, which this group clearly is not – trumps the worries of the many citizens who have suffered because of gun crime. Do something. I will be watching and I expect some kind of condemnation and action to stop such a display happening again. As many people are saying – what would have been different if this group had been comprised of minorities: would they still have been welcomed so warmly?
or a short tweet: @AndyBeshearKY Where’s your condemnation re mob of masked gunmen descending on the KY capitol 31/1? It was intimidation, breach of peace. It is huge insult to the 000s of KY families who lost loved ones to avoidable gun violence. You must address this, prevent future occurrence.
Phone: 1 502-564-2611
Email: (form) https://andybeshear.com/contact/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AndyBeshearKY/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AndyBeshearKY
Once you have made contact, fill out the three fields below and click the orange banner to report taking action!