Metro Council approves resolution supporting Kentucky bills that would allow guns used in crimes to be destroyed

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Some Louisville leaders want guns that are used in crimes to be destroyed.

Right now, the city has to send confiscated guns to Kentucky State Police. Then, those guns are sold at auction and could find their way back to the streets.

But Metro Council moved a resolution forward Tuesday evening that supports bills pushed by some state lawmakers that would allow Jefferson County to destroy those guns instead.

While councilmembers acknowledged that the bills are unlikely to pass in Frankfort, they passed the resolution unanimously with both Democrats and Republicans saying the symbolic act is a step in the right direction.

The auctions are required under a law passed in 1998 by the Kentucky General Assembly, which directed that seized weapons be sold to federally-licensed firearms dealers if they can't be returned to their legal owners. Auction proceeds help outfit police officers, sheriff's deputies and other law enforcement with body armor, tasers, weapons, ammunition and body-worn cameras.

But as gun violence surged in Louisville, the law has been under new scrutiny from police officials who would see some weapons seized and sent to auction eventually used in crimes again. In 2016, Steve Conrad, then-chief of the Louisville Metro Police Department, told Metro Council he "would rather get rid of the gun and destroy it like we used to before the state law" passed in 1998.

The law has also faced scrutiny from state lawmakers. In 2018, former Rep. Reggie Meeks, D-Louisville, proposed House Bill 411, that would have done away with the law.

Earlier this month, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg announced a new policy that changes the way LMPD handles confiscated guns used in violent crimes in an effort to keep them from getting back on the city's streets.

Moving forward, LMPD officers will now remove the firing pin from seized guns before turning them over to KSP. It's the fulfillment of a promise Greenberg made early on in his mayoral campaign

He issued a memorandum requiring officers to take the firing pin out, but keep it attached, before making them available to KSP. This move also requires LMPD officers to attach a warning sticker explaining the gun may have been used in a homicide.

Greenberg said the next step is joining legislation that would allow LMPD to destroy seized guns, and a bill recently filed in Frankfort, House Bill 325, calls for allowing the state to permanently disable any guns used in crimes.

LMPD said it's currently storing thousands of guns that have been seized.