West Virginia started something. We all knew it the moment it was announced that a bill had been introduced to allow the state to sell machine guns to citizens. Hell, it was better than my poor reading comprehension led me to believe when I first saw it, because the way the federal law reads, they can sell brand-new stuff to citizens, bypassing the 1986 ban.
It’s glorious, and we knew someone else would follow suit.
There are states where I figure this will pass more easily than others. I didn’t quite expect Kentucky to be the next to introduce it, though.
In a decisive move that reaffirms Kentucky’s proud heritage as a constitutional carry state and a bulwark for unalienable rights, Rep. TJ Roberts (R-Burlington) introduced House Bill 749 on February 25, 2026. This landmark legislation establishes an Office of Public Defense within the Kentucky State Police, tasked with acquiring and transferring modern, select-fire machine guns directly to law-abiding citizens. HB 749 is nothing short of revolutionary: it weaponizes a clear federal exemption to dismantle the artificial, unconstitutional barriers erected by the 1986 Hughes Amendment, restoring to Kentuckians the very arms the Founding Fathers intended for a well-regulated militia and the security of a free state.
Rep. Roberts, a steadfast defender of the Second Amendment who just days ago voted against HB 299, the GOP-backed bill criminalizing Glock switches, has long argued that law-abiding citizens deserve parity with the very tools carried by law enforcement and the military. “Federal law explicitly allows states to sell machine guns to their citizens,” Roberts declared upon filing the measure. His bill does exactly that, sidestepping the Hughes Amendment’s post-1986 registration ban through 18 U.S.C. § 922(o)(2)(A), which carves out transfers “to or by” a state or under its authority. No more overpaying for pre-1986 “transferables” that now fetch $25,000 to $60,000 on the collector market.
Kentucky residents who pass a standard background check may soon be able to purchase true military-pattern full-auto firearms at reasonable prices, AR-15/M16 platforms, squad automatic weapons (SAW), submachine guns, and the arms “in common use” for militia purposes.
The structure of HB 749 is elegant, efficient, and maximally freedom-oriented. It creates the Office of Public Defense inside the Department of Kentucky State Police, empowering the director to procure machine guns “of like kind” to those issued to law enforcement and the U.S. Armed Forces. Purchases will prioritize in-state manufacturers wherever possible, boosting Kentucky’s firearms industry and keeping tax dollars circulating locally. Qualified persons, any adult not prohibited from owning firearms under state or federal law, can buy these weapons at State Police facilities after a clean NICS check. Upon transfer, buyers receive an official state-issued certificate confirming the firearm was acquired “by” the Commonwealth, providing ironclad protection under the federal exemption.
Seriously, this is awesome, and I’d love to see a bill in place in all 50 states, though we all know it’ll never fly in most of them.
Unfortunately, I think that may be the case in Kentucky, too.
As it stands, the state has a Democrat in the governor’s mansion, and while Gov. Andy Breshear isn’t the most anti-gun Democrat in the nation; he’s not exactly an example of a pro-gun Democrat, either.
He’ll veto the bill, should it pass.
The question then becomes whether they can override the veto. Assuming the vote goes down party lines, they can. However, a lot of lawmakers are hesitant to override a veto without a really, really good reason, and I fear that too few will see putting machine guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens as a good enough reason.
But if ever there were a time I want to be wrong, this is it.
Yeah, I don’t have any ties to Kentucky. I don’t plan to move there; I have no family there, nothing.
The reason I want this to happen is that it’s yet another move that will negate the hysteria surrounding full-auto weapons. Every state that makes these available for people at a reasonable price, thus increasing the number in private hands, without these guns being misused by gang-bangers and drug lords, as the anti-gunners would have you believe is inevitable, it negates their arguments that much more.
So yeah, I want to see this, and I want to see it in so many places that it becomes untenable to even bother with the NFA or the 86 machine gun ban anymore.
Let’s relegated them to the dustbin of history, where they never should have emerged from in the first place.
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