Below is a post from the Facebook page of Kentucky Concealed Carry Coalition (KC3) that was originally posted on March 9. This lawsuit is now at the Ky. Court of Appeals and actively being decided. You can read a summary of the case up to this point here. If this case is decided in Pikeville's favor, Ky.'s preemption law will be worth nothing and local governments will be able to regulate guns as they please. That includes your hometown and your home county and your local park and your local library and your local City Hall.
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A Pike Circuit Judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by KC3 against the City of Pikeville. The lawsuit concerns policies, rules and regulations written and enforced by the City of Pikeville that prohibit the possession of firearms by anyone on certain property owned, leased or operated by the City of Pikeville. An appeal of that dismissal has been filed with the Ky. Court of Appeals.
The City has an ordinance that prohibits the carrying of any concealed weapons in buildings owned or operated by the City. That ordinance conforms to state law in KRS 237.115. KC3 has no objection to the City enforcing that ordinance. However, the City does not stop there and prohibits the possession of all firearms, no matter the method of carrying, at Appalachian Wireless Arena and Convention Center, the City Park and at Bob Amos Park, Fire Training Center and RV Park. The City's application to rent a park pavilion or building also contains a "No Firearms Allowed" clause.
The City relies on the Federal Gun Free School Zone Act for all of these policies and regulations, since they claim all of these facilities are located within 1000 feet of  K-12 school property. They also rely on KRS 244.125 that prohibits loaded guns in a room where alcohol is actually sold, for the ban at the Arena and Convention Center. KC3 argues that each of these laws has exceptions that are being ignored and exceeded by the City. For example, a law-abiding person that is licensed by the state of Ky. to carry concealed deadly weapons but also wants to comply with the City ordinance might attempt to open carry their firearm into the Arena. That scenario would not violate the City ordinance or the Federal Gun Free School Zone Act that contains an exception for persons licensed by the state where the school exists. There is no requirement in that Federal law to actually conceal the weapons, just have the license. That person would not be allowed to enter the Arena under the present rules. Since the City ordinance does not apply to openly carried weapons and the federal law has an exception for licensed persons, this can only be a rule created by the City. KC3 thinks this is a violation of KRS 65.870 which prohibits a local government from passing their own gun laws or rules.
The City also argues that alcohol is sometimes sold at the Arena. KRS 244.125 prohibits the possession of a LOADED firearm in a ROOM where alcohol is being served. The KC3 board doubts that alcohol is sold in every ROOM of the Arena and at every event. Would a licensed person be allowed to carry an unloaded weapon into the Arena?  They are not. That is prohibited by the policies, rules and regulations that are the basis for the suit from KC3.
The Pikeville School District occasionally uses the athletic fields located in the Bob Amos Park. KC3 doubts that those athletic fields are used by the school all day on every day of the year, yet the gun ban is 24/7 and 365. The City claims that Bob Amos Park and City Park downtown are both within 1000 feet of the school property. Pikeville City government has put up signs prohibiting possession of all firearms by all people at all times on park property used by the school. The school does not use the entire park and they don't use the athletic field every day or even all day of any day. KC3 has no objection to posting "No Guns" signs at the athletic fields being used for the times the school actually is using the park but that signage would have to be removed at the end of that usage. There are no athletic fields in City Park and they also prohibit guns. The City contends that park is within 1000 ft of a school. That appears to be true but that law does not apply to licensed persons.
The City also operates an RV Park and nearby firefighting school. The City claims those two facilities are within 1000 feet of school property. No guns are allowed on the property, even in vehicles. You can not have a firearm in your RV if you park it in that facility. A person that has a KY CCDW is violating no state or federal law when they bring a firearm onto that facility. This is a regulation instituted solely by the City of Pikeville and is a violation of KRS 65.870.
The Circuit Court trial Judge could not find a single violation of law by the City in all of this. The Board of KC3 is extremely disappointed by the decision to dismiss our suit but it was not completely unexpected. The suit named the Mayor of Pikeville and all City Commissioners as defendants. The Circuit Judge who was assigned the case was a former Mayor of the City of Pikeville.  We knew we could face problems.
KC3 thas appealed this decision to the Ky. Court of Appeals. This Circuit Court decision took over 18 months to work its way through the courts. The appeal could take years and cost thousands. This is KC3's 20th court case and all of them, to this point, have ended in victory. We cannot continue to operate without funds. Our main source if revenue has always been donations from our members and others that support our work. Recently those have dried up. We also held raffles and sold raffle tickets at the larger gun shows. That is no longer possible. To my knowledge, KC3 is the only group doing this kind of work. We have won 19 court cases and forced hundreds of local governments to comply with the law by threatening lawsuits. KC3 is mainly responsible for the present "firearms preemption" law currently on the books in Ky., KRS 65.870. If you want to see this kind of work continue we ask you to support KC3 in the fight for your gun rights. KC3 is a tax exempt 501.(c)(4) corporation. We can accept donations by credit or debit card. Just use the DONATE button of our website at KC3.com.  The DONATE button will take you to a paypal page, or send checks mailed to our mailing address, P.O. Box 1629 Frankfort Ky. 40602-1269. There is also a emai form for those that want to join KC3 or current and past members that need to catch up on expired memberships. Memberships are $25 per year or $55 for 3 years. Anyone that sends membership money should also send an email through our email service, also located in "CONTACT US" tab of  KC3.com, giving name, address, phone number and email address.
I know many Ky. gun owners will say, "I don't live near Pikeville. Why should I care what they do?" I don't live near Pikeville either. As a matter of fact, I have never been to Pikeville. It is important to stop all of this, everywhere. The next time, it might be your hometown and most individuals cannot fight this on their own. KC3 has been fighting this for 25 years. We cannot continue to do it without funds. If you want to see KC3 continue to work for your gun rights, help us out with a donation.

To me, the bigger question, with the history of wins by KC3, is how do we (KC3, its supports, and responsible people) make these entities pay, to the extent it is painful?

That is a good question. The answer is that, right now, you can't. Not in any meaningful way. The only thing that they could be required to pay is our attorney's fees and court costs. They can just pass that on to the taxpayers. When we sued  the City of Hillview a few years ago the judge declared us the winner but said all the city would have to pay was out court fees, about $375. We had to appeal that ruling and when it came to Court of Appeals, they said no that means court fees plus attornys charges. You might be able to sue the city officials individually but you'd have to prove malice and intent. You could also go for a criminal charge, but who would prosecute that case? The two criminal charges mentioned in KRS 65.870(6) are both misdemeanors and County Attorneys prosecute misdemeanors in District Court. When the violation is by a county government, he would have to prosecute his own client since he acts as the legal advisor for the Fiscal court. Even city attorneys act closely with the County Attorney and you'd never get them to prosecute. A prosecutor has absolute discretion on what case and who he prosecutes. The best we can do is break even, even when we win all we get is our legal fees repaid. If we ever lose, it will probably bankrupt the organization. This is why we must rely on donations from our members and supporters. When we filed the l.awsuit against UK in the Michael Mitchell case, we had donations coming in from all over the country. That has not been the case since Covid 19 appeared and there haven't been many big gun shows where we sold most of our raffle tickets before so we have had to forgo that source of income also.

What about a situation in which an individuals rights are violated?   That would be from an individual illegally removed and denied access to arrested on laws that have no standing?

And what would be the damages to a person like that? How would you make them whole again? What would you ask in a lawsuit? How do you quantify your loss?

Intentional infliction of emotional distress, or in the alternative negligent infliction of emotional distress, with the eggshell thin skull standard for emotional fragility. Similar to the claim of loss of consortium claim for the wrongful death of a family member (though nowhere near as severe I would argue) Made whole by the comfort of knowing the government individuals or entity changes their behavior and being given money to deal with the loss. Like they do with "wrongful" police shootings. Loss quantified at least in part, as an example, by going to a therapist and talking about how the action hurt you.

Of course there is that pesky sovereign immunity argument you have to get around. Your individual rights might be violated but that does not mean your PROTECTED civil rights are violated. Gun owners are not a protected class under the Federal Civil Rights act, unfortunately

And once again, what do you ask for in damages? How do you quantify that? If a person wrecks your car, you get 3 estimates, get it fixed, rent a car for the time that takes and sue for the total amount. If you are injured on the job, you add up all the medical bills and sue for the total plus lost wages. Violating your rights? What is that worth? Who knows? Not me. Because it is an unknown, most lawyers don't want to take it. There is no expectation of a payday at the end. You might win in the end, but win what?

You can quantify in part by the therapy bills. Or just ask convince a jury "your rights are worth X"
Heck seek punitive damages.

Plenty of lawyers have sued on "rights" violations and won. Maybe not a lot, maybe a good amount. Deprived entry while armed in violation of the law? Yah, might not get a lot of sympathy there.

It's hit or miss with what attorneys take on