GOP candidates tread cautiously on gun issues in Kentucky

April 14, 2023  -LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky Republicans running for governor have deflected questions about gun legislation since this week’s mass shooting at a Louisville bank, turning instead to prayer and a focus on mental health.

While GOP candidates were treading cautiously on a core issue for many Republican voters, professing strong support for gun rights, some prominent Democrats spoke forcefully for action after the shooting Monday in which a bank employee used an assault-style rifle to kill five coworkers. Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg implored state lawmakers to give his city — long plagued by gun violence — more authority to shape its gun policies.

“This is about life and death,” Greenberg said this week. “This is about preventing tragedies.”

Republicans running for governor, meanwhile, steered clear of a stand taken by GOP Gov. Bill Lee in neighboring Tennessee. Responding to the recent shooting deaths of three children and three adults at a Christian elementary school in Nashville, Lee called on his state’s GOP legislative majorities to pass a measure that would keep firearms away from people who could harm themselves or others.