Tagged: gun control

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul is lending his name to a conservative gun rights group that's targeting fellow Republicans.

The group, the National Association for Gun Rights, is running ads against two Congressmen in Virginia, including House Minority leader Eric Cantor, saying they gave in too easily to President Obama's gun control measures. They also say the National Rifle Association is too willing to compromise on gun rights.

The state Senate on Monday overwhelmingly passed a nullification bill that would prohibit Kentucky from enforcing new federal gun control laws if they're enacted, despite concerns about the bill's constitutionality.

The vote was 34-3. Three of the Senate's 14 Democrats voted no, stating that the measure would be trumped by the U.S. Constitution's Supremacy Clause.

Sen. Jared Carpenter, a Berea Republican, sponsored the bill. He said the Supremacy Clause applies only if Congress is acting in pursuit of its constitutionally authorized powers, which he said wouldn't apply to stricter gun measures.

"If I thought the bill would be symbolic, I would've written a resolution," Carpenter told the Associated Press. "I thought it needed more than that."

Indiana State Police are seeing a surge in gun permit requests amid the national gun-control debate sparked by December's deadly Connecticut school shooting.

The Indianapolis Star reports state police are now seeing up to 4,000 permit requests each week. That's three times the number the agency was handling at the same time last year.

Indiana residents make online gun permit applications to the State Police, but those applications are funneled to local police agencies for inspection, fingerprinting and background checks.

Each of those applications must be reviewed and approved or rejected by the local police chief, town marshal or county sheriff.

Hoping to reduce gun violence in Kentucky, two Democratic lawmakers have filed a bill  that would allow Kentucky State Police to set regulations banning certain firearms or high-capacity magazines.

The bill, which state Sen. Kathy Stein plans to file in the Senate on Thursday, would also allow cities and colleges to ban guns and would require private background checks  for every gun sale in Kentucky.

Stein, a Democrat from Lexington, said she's not seeking to infringe on Second Amendment rights from the U.S. Constitution.

"We value the Second Amendment," Stein said. " We recognize that there are very legitimate uses people have for guns, for sporting, for hunting and yes, for self-protection."

The bill's supporters say they are optimistic for a hearing in the short 2013 General Assembly session.