Under Kentucky law, the gun used in the downtown Louisville mass shooting on Monday would eventually be auctioned off to the public by Kentucky State Police.
There’s also no policy that Louisville officials, who want to stop the practice, can pursue to change that practice because of another state law.
Just one day following the shooting that left six dead, including the gunman, and injured several others, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg decried these laws. Greenberg, a Democrat, asked the Republican-dominated Kentucky legislature to consider changing statute to allow Louisville’s government to destroy firearms used in crimes like what took place on Monday.
“Under current Kentucky law, the assault rifle that was used to murder five of our neighbors and shoot at rescuing police officers will one day be auctioned off. Think about that. That murder weapon will be back on the streets one day under Kentucky’s current law,” Greenberg said.
Kentucky State Police (KSP) Captain Paul Blanton, a spokesperson for the agency, confirmed to the Herald-Leader that the normal course of business for such a firearm is to be sold at auction, with a majority of the funds going to the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security and the remaining 20% to KSP. Blanton also stated that neither Louisville Metro Government nor the Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) has requested that the agency treat the firearm used by the assailant any differently.
The department has yet to officially respond to an inquiry as to what it would do if a Louisville governmental agency formally requested it not be auctioned.
Early in his tenure, Greenberg announced that his office directed LMPD to remove the firing pins from seized guns and place warning labels on them before handing them over to KSP to be auctioned.
Previous efforts to roll back the law that bars Louisville from enacting significant gun control policies have fallen short. In 2022, Rep. Josie Raymond, D-Louisville, worked on a bill to do just that but it never got assigned to committee in the House. Before her, Louisville Democratic representatives Attica Scott and Charles Booker filed similar pieces of legislation, which also didn’t advance.
In recent years, Democrats like those Louisville lawmakers have led calls for both increased gun control and for cities to have more local control over guns in their jurisdiction.
However, conservative Democrats have been the ones to carry the bills that became the laws those legislators are decrying. Now Republicans have essentially veto-proof control over the state’s lawmaking process and have yet to signal they will make any changes.
The law barring essentially any public agency from enacting gun restriction measures was proposed and passed in 2012 with the sponsorship of former House Democratic caucus chair Bob Damron of Nicholasville and was signed by former Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear, current Gov. Andy Beshear’s father. Before, the law only limited cities and counties, but the measure greatly expanded the list of agencies to include virtually any local public agency in the state. That measure passed 34-2 in the Senate and 88-8 in the House, with only Democrats from Lexington and Louisville voting no.
Further, the law establishing the statute that currently mandates KSP to auction confiscated firearms was passed in 1998 by Democratic sponsor Mike Bowling of Middlesboro. The agency had already been auctioning off firearms, but the bill established the statute that is currently used to do so. That bill was signed into law by former Democratic governor Paul Patton.
Spokespeople for the Republican Speaker of the House David Osborne and Senate President Robert Stivers have yet to respond to inquiries about whether or not they’ll pursue any policy changes in response to Greenberg’s call or the mass shooting event in general.
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