State Representative Wesley Morgan of Richmond has prefiled a constitutional carry bill for the 2018 session. The 2018 bill is the same as the bill Rep. Morgan sponsored in the 2017 session. That bill never received a committee hearing. The bill can be seen here:

http://www.lrc.ky.gov/recorddocuments/bill/18RS/BR172/bill.pdf

Is there are list of planned legislation that you want pushed this year or is it too early for that and this was just first bill pre-filed?  I'll be sending you a PM shortly.  

I won't pretend to know why the bill didn't even get a committee hearing but I do know the last sessions was first time the Republicans had control of the House and Senate in 95 years or something like that.  They had a specific agenda of key economic things that they wanted to pass and did, which resulting in close to $4 billion in investments by businesses.  Getting some of that legislation passed key, so secondary things like gun right enhancements, when there is no big bad wolf beating at the door, got pushed.  That said, I won't accept that as a reason for stuff to get pushed this coming session.

Last year was a short session, only 30 days. This years session will be 60 days. In the short years, they always say, "there just wasn't time, we'll look at it next year" then on the long years they say, "we have to spend a lot of time on the budget, we'll look at it next year, we won't be so busy". I've heard both of these excuses for many years. The truth is they do very little every year, only a few of them have anything to do with the budget and they have enough time to do anything that they want done. Nothing happens until the last few days. I'm 72 years old. I don't want to hear about "next year". I don't have very many "next years" left.

At the beginning of last year's session, constitutional carry was one of the priorities for all the Republican Senate leadership. We had commitments from them. We had assurances of their support. The bill number, Senate Bill 7, was an indication of the status they placed on the bill. We were even asked if we wanted it to be designated it an "emergency" bill, so it would go into effect the day the Governor signed it, instead of waiting the usual 90 days. We all said "no", that wasn't necessary. They met for 4 days, passed Senate Bills 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5, then they went home for a month. When they came back, the bill was poison. Nobody wanted to talk about it. They wouldn't even look us in the eye when we talked. There was no House bill even written then. We were so sure that the Senate bill was going to pass, we didn't think it necessary to have a separate House bill. The plan was that once the bill passed the Senate, it would come over to the House and be quickly passed there. I had already talked to the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and gotten a commitment for a hearing in his committee after it passed the Senate. It was all going to be very easy. How could it not pass, we had the Chairman of the Senate committee that would hear it as the bill's sponsor. Of course, he would hold a hearing for his own bill. Once the trouble started in the Senate and it looked like it was not going to even get a committee hearing, we had to scramble to get a bill running in the House, hoping we could salvage it. By then, there really wasn't enough time to get it done. Nobody wanted to touch it. It was radioactive.

The NRA finally got Representative Morgan to sponsor it. He was in his first year as a State Representative. He didn't have much influence with the other members and everybody in the House was suspicious of a bill that they all knew had died a terrible death in the Senate for unknown reasons. There is going to have to be a long, tough education process to get the bill passed this year. Without a lot of vocal and persistent support, it won't happen. We can sit back and wait until they "give" us constitutional carry. That will be when we are one of the last 4 or 5 states that don't have it. Maybe we'll get it before New Jersey does. Or, we can demand that it be given to us, now. If they won't produce, we can put the D's. back in power. They weren't perfect, but they gave us all of the laws we have now. It seems to me that the R's think that we have no other place to go. They take us for granted and think we will never go back to the D's, no matter how little they do for us.

From my interactions with the legislators that I mentioned I don't get that sense at all.  I've heard Senator Thayer talk about guns and shooting often.  That doesn't guarantee he will push the bills but he is active in shooting sports and not just paying lip service.  One of the things that Thayer talks about is how in week 1 of the legislative session they actually passed several bills.  That really pissed off the Democrats who said "that is not how things are supposed to work" as they never passed a bill the first week and always waited until the last couple days to do anything.  

Another thing to keep in mind is the Republicans swept the House races, meaning we had a lot of first time legislators who needed to prove themselves and get bills passed so they can show they accomplished something.  In that respect, I think you are right in that they know the gun owners aren't going to vote Dem if they don't push the pro-gun legislation.  Instead they will be looking to centrist type bills that will help ensure they get re-elected.  Again not excusing it but just relaying what I have heard them talking about.

The Republicans big concern now is holding on to those seats and the Democrats will be hitting back hard.  Under that scenario they know every vote counts and they know they need to get their base fully motivated to get out and vote.  This year is the perfect time to push for the legislation you want and warn them that if they hold back that some of the gun owners might leave the House and Senate sections blank on the ballot.  They know you won't switch and vote D but the thought of gun owners sitting at home should be enough to scare them just the same.