Kentucky to consider bill that would hold parents accountable for children’s gun crimes

Kentucky’s legislature is primed to consider a bill in the new year that would make parents responsible for their juvenile child committing a crime involving the discharge of a firearm.

State Rep. Kim Banta, R-Erlanger, modeled her legislation after similar laws that hold parents accountable for property crimes and motor vehicle accidents.

In the Bluegrass State, parents are liable for up to $2,500 in cases where their kids deface property and the guardian who signed a minor’s driver’s license application is “jointly and severally liable” for any findings of negligence or damage behind the wheel.

“The most important thing is that I am absolutely not trying to stop gun sales or enact gun control,” Banta told Fox News Digital in a Friday interview.

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A sign on US-460 leaving Virginia greets drivers near Mouthcard, Ky., in 2017 (Charles Creitz)

“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.”

Similar to the language in the car-crash law, Banta’s bill imputes “negligence or willful misconduct” of a minor on their parents/guardians for civil damages stemming from injuries to another person that are caused by a person with a gun.

Factors in determining parental liability include whether the elder allowed the child to have the gun, was aware of previous gun law violations or believes the minor to have the propensity to be violent, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.

On Friday, Banta said there had been a recent case in Kentucky where several 15-year-olds got into a disagreement, purportedly over drugs, and one boy went home, retrieved a gun, and came back and shot the two other youths.

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Police converge on the scene of a shooting in Brooklyn, N.Y. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

“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 said.

Foster parents, however, would be exempt from the law, according to Murray State University’s NPR affiliate.

The bill will be presented in January and Banta said if it makes it to a committee vote, there is a high likelihood it will make it to a full floor vote and be sent to Gov. Andrew Beshear’s desk.

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Fox News Digital reached out Beshear for comment but did not receive a response by press time. 

Both legislative chambers in Frankfort are held by Republican majorities, while Beshear is a Democrat.