By JOSEPH GERTH, The Courier-Journal

FRANKFORT, Ky. -- Blind people will still be allowed to carry concealed weapons after a bill to end the practice failed in a House committee yesterday.

The bill was prompted by news reports that blind people had passed the marksmanship test to obtain a concealed-weapons permit.

A legally blind person who testified at yesterday's hearing, Joe Stewart of Frankfort, said he now intends to apply for a permit because he wants to shove his gun into his pocket when he walks to the shooting range "so I won't look like a cowboy."

The bill fell four votes short of the 10 needed for approval.

"I'm just beside myself," said Rep. Kathy Stein, D-Lexington, one of the bill's sponsors. "I certainly felt the members of the Judiciary Committee would see the common-sense wisdom of that basic safeguard for somebody to carry a concealed deadly weapon."

The bill would have prohibited people whose sight isn't good enough to get a Kentucky driver's license from obtaining a concealed-carry permit. That means they would have to have at least 20/60 vision in one eye with a corrective lens.

The issue has arisen with media reports of a legally blind woman who pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court last month to carrying a .32-caliber derringer into the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Louisville. The woman had a valid permit, but it is still illegal for most people to carry a weapon on federal property.

Some of those who have opposed granting the permits to blind people have argued they present a danger to others. The opponents contend that the state's permitting process, which requires hitting a static life-size target 11 of 20 shots from 21 feet away, is too easy -- especially because an attacker rarely stands still.

Nancy Hua, a spokeswoman for Handgun Control Inc., said the fact that blind people in Kentucky can obtain permits indicates to her that the standards for concealed carry here are too lax. "We think they (blind people) should be allowed to defend themselves, but frankly we don't think that allowing them to carry guns in public is the way to do it."

Committee members who opposed the bill said yesterday that they voted against it because they feared that it would violate either the federal Americans With Disabilities Act -- which prohibits discrimination -- or the U.S. Constitution.

Yesterday, the woman who carried the gun into the VA hospital, Carolyn Ann Key, said she was glad the bill failed. "We should have our rights just like anyone else," she said. "Some of us have been carrying guns for years and most people knew nothing about it."

Tim Cranmer, vice president of the National Federation of the Blind, said in an interview yesterday that he doesn't believe anyone should be allowed to carry concealed weapons but as long as they are, the blind and visually impaired should not be prohibited from doing so as well.

Stein provided the only testimony in favor of the bill.

Three members of the Kentucky Coalition to Carry Concealed opposed the measure. Shelby Riggs, a member of the coalition, introduced Stewart, a blind man who claims to be an ace marksman.

"He is legally blind, he is a gun enthusiast, he shoots and reloads his own ammunition, and from where he sits here, he could hit any one of you. Not that he would," Riggs said.

Riggs noted that last year the state passed a bill that allows some legally blind people outfitted with special telescopic devices to drive cars.

"We know it's a constitutional right to own a gun, and we feel it's as much his right as anyone else, especially when we see what they're doing for legally blind people to drive a vehicle," Riggs said. "And I don't think any of you would argue that a person that's legally blind out on a highway with a car is more dangerous than a person that's legally blind that's only carrying a weapon and not using it."

Stewart said he wants the right to carry a gun "to protect myself from dogs if nothing else."

Voting for the bill were: Stein; Paul Bather, D-Louisville; Jesse Crenshaw, D-Lexington; Charlie Geveden, D-Wickliffe; Gross Lindsey, D-Henderson; and Bob Heleringer, R-Eastwood.

Voting against were: Perry Clark, D-Louisville; Frank Rasche, D-Paducah; Arnold Simpson, D-Covington; Brent Yonts, D-Greenville; Joe Fisher, R-Fort Thomas; Jeff Hoover, R-Jamestown; Gary Tapp, R-Shelbyville; and John Vincent, R-Ashland.

Rep. Kevin Bratcher, R-Valley Station, passed.

Hoover, the Republican floor leader, said he voted against the bill because of concerns that it could violate civil rights law prohibiting discrimination against the disabled.

Cathy Jackson, president of the National Federation of the Blind of Kentucky, said she had opposed the bill because the blind should have the same rights as the sighted.

She acknowledged that many legally blind people shouldn't be allowed to drive a car, but said that is far different from carrying a gun.

"That's talking about having to see a greater distance and having to look around and drive defensively," Jackson said. She said a blind person would attempt to use a gun only at a very short distance, and said the bill was introduced out of fear.

House Speaker Jody Richards, D-Bowling Green, was surprised by the vote: "I would have voted the other way. I just think blind people ought not be allowed to carry guns."

But Rep. J.R. Gray, D-Benton, one of the legislature's strongest gun advocates, was pleased the bill failed.

"On the surface, what Kathy was trying to do sounds like apple pie and motherhood and Chevrolets, you know," he said. "But on the other hand, I think it would look like we would be discriminating against the handicapped if we were to do something like that."

Stein said she would try to find a piece of existing legislation to attach her bill to on the House floor.

Source: The Courier-Journal