Frank Ettin
Administrator
I think it doesn't have anything to do with your question.steve4102 said:
You asked, essentially, whether, based on provisions of the Kentucky Constitution, a business open to the public could bar openly carried guns. The statutes and cases cited address the legality of carrying guns in public. I didn't see anything preventing someone with a property interest declining permission to enter on his property if someone is carrying a gun.
It's well established that the United States Constitution does not regulate private conduct. Therefore, the Second Amendment can not prevent a business owner from barring firearms on his premises.
State constitutions have to a limited extent been applied to private conduct. If there were a Supreme Court of Kentucky cases applying the RKBA provisions to private conduct, it hasn't been cited in the material you've posted.
It's true that a business denying access to someone because he is legally carrying a gun is discriminatory, BUT --
- In general, discrimination is not illegal. You do it all the time. Every time you decide to shop in this store rather than that, you have discriminated. Every time you decide to buy this rather than that, you have discriminated.
- Businesses discriminate all the time too, and legally. Apple stores discriminate against people who want to buy a PC by only selling Apple computers. Many restaurant discriminate against Orthodox Jews or Muslims by not strictly following the dietary laws of those religions. Many restaurants also discriminate against persons not wearing shirts and/or shoes by not admitting them. Tiffany discriminates against poor people in the prices they charge. Businesses also discriminate whenever they hire one person instead of another who has applied for the job.
- Discrimination is merely choosing one thing over another or rejecting a possible choice. Discrimination is the very essence of freedom and private property. It is the right to choose. It is the right to exclude. It is the right to decide how you want to use your property.
- Discrimination is perfectly legal, unless some law makes it illegal. There are laws that make discrimination illegal on various, specifically identified and defined bases, illegal -- at least if you're a business open to the public or an employer or in some other specified category. In general, gun owners aren't a protected class.
- The statutes are specific as to rights protected, against what conduct, and for whom. If something you think is a right isn't included in the statute, and if some private conduct should be included but isn't, and if some class of people you think ought to be protected isn't included in the statute, that "right" and/or that class of people aren't protected by the statute against that conduct.
So at this point I see no reason to conclude that a business otherwise open to the public in Kentucky can't bar persons who are legally openly carrying a gun.