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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Metro Council has passed an ordinance making random gunfire illegal in Louisville.

MetroSafe got more than 5,700 calls for shots fired in Louisville last year, 300 of them coming in on New Year's Eve into New Year's Day as "celebratory gunfire."

Metro Council on Thursday voted to pass an ordinance that would make it illegal to discharge a firearm in the city if it's within 300 feet of a public road or alley, or in the direction of a building with people inside.

"With the gun violence that we have in the community, and the frightening gun discharge we have in the community ... not just on New Year's Eve, but on (the) 4th of July ... when the police department tells me this is a tool they can use, I want to give them that tool," Councilman Bill Hollander, D-9, said.

The ordinance makes randomly firing a gun in the city a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail. It's something Louisville Metro Police Chief Erika Shields has called a "safety control measure."

"Right now, the way the state law is, our cases are not taken forward unless we have a victim," she said. "So if we're getting ShotSpotter hits that we have gunfire in an area, we go out, someone's shooting a gun, there's not a victim, that's not chargeable."

Louisville began using ShotSpotter in the summer of 2017. It's a system that detects audible gunshots and automatically reports them to MetroSafe. The system uses a series of microphone sensors scattered around the city to find the location of the gunfire. The program received funding to expand in 2022.

Exceptions to the ordinance would be made under the following circumstances:

  • When defending persons or property
  • By peace officers, military personnel, or similar officers in the execution of their official duties and during training
  • Within a properly zoned and constructed indoor firing range
  • When legally hunting on at least five contiguous acres of open land
  • When engaged in target shooting, skeet shooting or sport shooting.

The ordinance was briefly tabled in February, but passed Council during a meeting Thursday evening.

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