In the new year, Kentucky’s government is going to look at a bill that would hold parents responsible if their teen child commits a crime involving firing a gun.
State Rep. Kim Banta, R-Erlanger, based her bill on similar rules that hold parents responsible for crimes against property and car accidents.
In Kentucky, parents can be fined up to $2,500 if their kids damage someone else’s property. Also, the guardian who signed a minor’s application for a driver’s license is “jointly and severally liable” for any accidents or damage that happen while the minor is driving.
Banta told Fox News Digital on Friday, “The most important thing is that I am not trying to stop gun sales or put gun control in place.”
“I’m simply trying to make parents aware that whether it is driving a car or doing anything else their child does, they need to know what they’re doing, and they need to exercise caution.”
Following the same language as the car-crash law, Banta’s bill holds parents or guardians responsible for “negligence or willful misconduct” of a child when they cause injuries to another person with a gun. This can lead to civil damages.
The Lexington Herald-Leader says that parental responsibility is based on whether the older person let the child have the gun, knew that the child had broken gun laws before, or thinks the minor is likely to be violent.
Banta said on Friday that there was a recent case in Kentucky of three 15-year-olds arguing, supposedly over drugs. One of the boys went home, got a gun, and then came back and shot the other two teens.
“A 15-year-old does not have the mental ability to make snap decisions that adults do; not in anger, not in routine life, so a gun in their possession unsupervised is a little different than an adult with a gun,” she added.
The law would not apply to foster parents, though, according to the NPR station at Murray State University.
Banta said that if the bill makes it to a committee vote, there is a good chance it will make it to the full floor vote and be sent to Gov. Andrew Beshear’s desk.
As of press time, Fox News Digital had not heard back from Beshear when they asked for a statement.
Both houses of the legislature in Frankfort are controlled by Republicans. Beshear, on the other hand, is a Democrat.
Source: Kentucky to consider bill that would hold parents accountable for children’s gun crimes