Kentucky governor lost his friend in a mass shooting but has said little about guns. Why?

It’s been said that you gotta dance with the girl that brung you.

In the days after two mass shootings in Louisville, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear seems to be, at best, making goo-goo eyes from across the dance floor.

It is clear that Louisville has a huge problem with guns. The city has set records for the number of homicides in two of the three years Beshear has been governor. The vast majority of those homicides have involved guns.

Earlier this month, one of his best friends was killed along with four others in the shooting at the Old National Bank. And then just days later, two people died in a mass shooting at Chickasaw Park.

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Will Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear lead us?

Yet, it doesn’t seem like Beshear has any desire to lead on the issue and hasn’t even said the word “gun.” The problem isn’t with his larynx; it may be with his guts or his backbone or something else that is stopping him from saying the word.

Since the mass shootings, he has reiterated his support for a red flag law, which would allow courts to take guns away from people who are deemed to be a threat to themselves or others. 

Even so, he has stopped short of supporting Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg’s demand that the state give the city authority to regulate guns, saying only that the city should have that discussion with legislators.

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And he has said that he doesn’t like a law that requires guns used in crimes to be sold at auction but has stopped short of offering his help to get around the silly law that helps maintain a flow of cheap handguns to the street.

Kentucky gets an F for gun policy

Kentucky has among the weakest gun laws in the nation. You don’t need a permit or any training to carry a concealed weapon. The state constitution says you can carry a gun displayed on your hip or slung over your shoulder, and police can’t do a dang thing about it. State law requires that guns used in crimes be sold at auction. Cities and counties are barred by state law from enacting any sort of gun law, and a new law passed by the state prohibits local police from helping to enforce federal gun crimes.

The Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence,  founded by former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords of Arizona after she was shot in the head, gives Kentucky an F for gun policy.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Kentucky ranks 13th highest in gun mortality – behind 11 other red states that all get Fs from Giffords, and New Mexico, a recently turned blue state that gets a C-plus.

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Even Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican in a very Republican state, came out in favor of red flag laws after three children and three staff members were killed in a mass shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville.

Beshear has done little to push the issue of the red flag law and has offered no solutions beyond that.

We need to talk about guns because that’s the only way we’ll ever do anything that might reduce the gun violence in Kentucky and specifically in Louisville. If we’re afraid to talk about guns, we’re doomed to tragedy after tragedy.

We’ll have more years where we set records for homicides in Louisville, more workplace shootings, more mass shootings in parks and, God forbid, more shootings in schools like we’ve seen in Paducah and in Marshall County and just recently in Nashville, Tennessee.

Beshear needs to start the conversation and throw caution to the wind, just as he did when he responded to the coronavirus pandemic. Remember that guy?

“I don’t care,” he said when talking about Republican attacks on him over his COVID-19 plans. “I am done with politics. I’m doing what I can to save lives every day. If people try to take my ability away to do that, I’m going to fight for that ability because my job is to protect you.”

Now, if he wasn't telling us the truth and he really isn’t “done with politics,” there’s a reason Beshear might not want to talk about guns. Even though recent polls show he has an approval rating of 60%, that kind of talk might harm him among rural voters.

But most of those voters aren’t going to vote for him anyway. When he won the governor’s race in 2019, he did so because he beat Matt Bevin by 98,772 votes in Louisville.

Louisville needs him to step up and talk about guns because it’s our sons and daughters who are dying because of them. And he can do that by pushing for targeted gun reform that won't make him look like a radical − especially since he's not a radical.

And since we’re the girl who brung Beshear to the governor’s mansion, it’s time for him to dance with us.

Joseph Gerth is a columnist at the Louisville Courier-Journal, where this column first ran. Follow him on Twitter: @Joe_Gerth