Kentucky regulation requires public sale for weapon in Louisville taking pictures

Greenberg defined {that a} law the state passed in 1998 prohibits regulation enforcement from destroying confiscated firearms — even once they have been utilized in crimes. As an alternative, these firearms — together with the AR-15-style rifle utilized in Monday’s taking pictures at Outdated Nationwide Financial institution — are required to be despatched to Kentucky State Police, which sells the weapons to federally licensed gun sellers.

Destroying the weapon utilized in Monday’s assault, Greenberg stated, “would make me a prison for making an attempt too arduous to cease the actual evil criminals who’re taking different individuals’s lives and who’re desperate to make a spectacle of mass homicide.”

“The legal guidelines now we have now are enabling violence and homicide,” added Greenberg, who himself survived a shooting at his campaign office in February 2022.

Kentucky State Police Capt. Paul Blanton didn’t reply to requests for remark from The Washington Submit on Tuesday evening, however he advised the Lexington Herald-Leader that about 80 p.c of public sale proceeds go to the Kentucky Workplace of Homeland Safety and about 20 p.c of the funds go to Kentucky State Police.

A Louisville Metro Police Division spokesperson declined to remark, referring questions on the auctions to Kentucky State Police. In February, interim chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel stated in a news conference: “LMPD has no real interest in spending a whole lot of hours investigating against the law solely to probably choose up the identical gun twice — or extra.”

In February, Greenberg announced that Louisville police would take away firing pins from weapons and add labels warning that the weapons could have been utilized in a murder earlier than sending them to Kentucky State Police. Greenberg has lobbied for Louisville to have the autonomy to set its personal gun restrictions, together with the power to destroy confiscated firearms, however a bill that passed in 2012 prevents Kentucky cities and counties from doing so.

Some Democrats have drafted bills that might empower municipalities equivalent to Louisville to implement their very own gun restrictions, however the proposals haven’t superior within the state legislature.

“Each member of the state legislature, like everybody else in our state and in our nation, is horrified by what we noticed yesterday, by what we see in different cities across the nation,” Greenberg said Tuesday. “None of us desires this to occur once more. … However it would hold taking place. That’s why now we have to do greater than what we’ve already carried out. Let’s change the state legal guidelines.”

State Sen. Karen Berg (D) advised The Submit that she introduced a bill in February that might require unowned, confiscated firearms to be destroyed — a measure she believed can be a straightforward compromise for each political events.

However Berg stated the state legislature, which is generally Republican, doesn’t need to talk about the invoice.

“It’s low-hanging fruit,” Berg stated. “They’re in our possession. They don’t belong to anyone. And as an alternative of actually spending the cash … so we will resell them, why can’t we put them in an incinerator?”

Tens of 1000’s of weapons in Kentucky have been auctioned to the best bidder, offering state entities thousands and thousands of {dollars} which have helped pay for regulation enforcement gear, in accordance with the Louisville Courier Journal. In 2021, the Courier Journal discovered 31 cases of weapons auctioned by the state later being utilized in crimes over a couple of six-year interval.

Authorities stated Monday’s gunman had legally bought the rifle six days earlier. The shooter killed Joshua Barrick, 40; Deana Eckert, 57; Thomas Elliott, 63; Juliana Farmer, 45; and James Tutt, 64.

Louisville police are possible so as to add a warning sticker to the firearm utilized in Monday’s taking pictures earlier than sending it to state police. However the weapon could possibly be used once more.

“Take into consideration that,” Greenberg stated Tuesday. “That homicide weapon might be again on the streets in the future underneath Kentucky’s present regulation.”