Kentucky has no red flag law: no extreme risk protection order statute exists here. No family member or police officer may petition to disarm someone,...
Reviewed by Will Luker, Founder of CCW Hub. USCCA Training Counselor, USCCA Certified Instructor, NRA Certified Instructor, Law Enforcement.
Kentucky has no red flag law: no extreme risk protection order statute exists here. No family member or police officer may petition to disarm someone, because Kentucky created no such order. A domestic violence order or emergency protective order does cost a license holder the license to carry concealed deadly weapon (CCDW license) until the order ends. Kentucky reports mental health commitments to the national background check database instead, with a court petition for relief.
No one. Kentucky names no petitioner for an extreme risk protection order, because it has created no such order to petition for. No relative, household member, doctor, prosecutor, or peace officer is given a route to ask a Kentucky court to take a person's firearms on a finding of dangerousness.
With no order, the machinery that would surround one is absent as well. Kentucky sets no standard for a court to apply before entering such an order. It provides no way for a court to enter one without notice to the respondent. It fixes no term for one, neither an initial period nor a final period. It commands no surrender of firearms or of a carry license under such an order, no compliance check, and no return of property when one ends. It gives a respondent no motion to terminate, modify, or appeal one, and a petitioner no way to extend one. And it sets no penalty for violating one, for filing a false petition, or for giving a firearm to a person one restrains.
A protective order costs you the license. Kentucky statute does not order a person under a domestic violence order or emergency protective order to surrender firearms, and what it does require is that the concealed carry license be surrendered to the court or to the officer serving the order and suspended while the order is in effect, under KRS 237.110(13)(k). The license stays suspended until the order terminates.
A mental health commitment is reported. Kentucky's answer to a person a court has found dangerous is mandatory reporting of the commitment for inclusion in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System database, with a judicial petition process for relief, under KRS 237.108(1). A person subject to the resulting federal firearm disability may petition the court in which the commitment, finding, or adjudication occurred to remove it, and the court must grant relief if a preponderance of the evidence shows the person is unlikely to be dangerous and relief would not be contrary to the public interest, under KRS 237.108(2). That disability continues until a court grants the petition, at which point the order, finding, or adjudication is deemed not to have occurred for that purpose, under KRS 237.108(4).
| Red flag element | Kentucky status |
|---|---|
| A statute creating the order | None |
| Who may petition | No one |
| Standard the court applies | None set |
| Order without notice to the respondent | Not provided for |
| How long an order lasts | No term fixed |
| Surrender, verification, and return of property | Not commanded |
| Terminate, modify, appeal, or extend | No route given |
| Penalty for violation, false petition, or transfer | None set |
| Mechanism used instead | Court reporting of mental health commitments to the background check database, with a petition for relief |
| Effect of a protective order on the license | Surrendered to the court or the serving officer, suspended until the order terminates |
No. Kentucky has no extreme risk protection order statute.
Not through a red flag order. Kentucky has created none and names no one who may seek one.
Kentucky provides no such order entered without notice to the respondent, and no route for a respondent to terminate, modify, or appeal one.
You surrender it to the court or to the officer serving the order, and it is suspended until the order terminates. Kentucky statute does not itself order you to surrender firearms.
The commitment is reported for inclusion in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System database, and a petition process exists for relief. You may petition the court in which the commitment, finding, or adjudication occurred to remove the federal firearm disability, and the court must grant relief on a preponderance showing that you are unlikely to be dangerous and that relief would not be contrary to the public interest.
It continues until a court grants the petition for relief, and then the order, finding, or adjudication is deemed not to have occurred for that purpose.
This page covers one part of our Kentucky concealed carry guide.
Read the complete Kentucky guideBrowse local instructors offering state-approved training in your area. Book online, complete your training, and get one step closer to your concealed carry permit.