In the wake of chaotic rallies across the country, a Kentucky lawmaker wants to keep protesters in the state from wearing masks or bringing weapons to public demonstrations.
Representative Wesley Morgan, a Republican from Richmond, said he filed the bill in response to people showing up to protests across the country with masks and hoods.
“The whole point of the law again is to make sure that people do not come with a purpose of inflicting harm upon someone else with a mask on, or some obstruction of their identity,” said Morgan.
State legislatures across the country have been considering new laws that regulate protesters.
Several states--including West Virginia, Virginia and Ohio--already have mask regulations on the books, many of them enacted in response to the Ku Klux Klan.
In Kentucky, the City of Pikeville passed an emergency ordinance banning masks and hoods ahead of a white nationalist rally earlier this year.
