LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg made a plea with state legislators last week to let the city make its own laws to deal with its "unique gun violence epidemic."

The statement was made in the aftermath of the April 10 mass shooting at Old National Bank downtown that killed five people and injured eight others. The shooter 25-year-old Connor Sturgeon, purchased the AR-15 rifle used in the shooting six days earlier at a local gun dealer.

"This is happening in America everywhere and will keep happening unless we take meaningful action. ... Doing nothing is not a strategy," Greenberg said. "Let us, the people of Louisville, make our own choices about how we reduce gun violence in our city."

The problem, though, city leaders say, is there isn't much they can do on their own.

"One of the challenges from a policy perspective is our hands are pretty well tied to do anything from a regulatory perspective," Metro Council President Markus Winkler, D-17, said Tuesday.

KRS section 65.870 — which was last amended in July 2012 — stipulates that no city, county or local government agency can regulate the "manufacture, sale, purchase, taxation, transfer, ownership, possession, carrying, storage, or transportation of firearms, ammunition, components of firearms, components of ammunition (or) firearms accessories ..."

Winkler said council members will continue to focus on funding and improving anti-violence and public safety initiatives, things they can do within their authority to tackle gun violence locally.

"I think there is also a policy answer at the state level that needs to happen to address these things," he said.

In his weekly newsletter Tuesday, Metro Councilman Anthony Piagentini, R-19, called for a bipartisan coalition to discuss "options that will make an impact and has a reasonable chance of becoming law." He named a few ideas:

  • Create a robust witness relocation or protection fund to protect courageous witnesses from retaliation
  • Get regular, public reporting from the County Attorney and Commonwealth Attorney's offices on how they are prosecuting violent criminals including information on plea deals
  • Increase judiciary transparency through regular public reporting on judicial decisions pertaining to violent criminals
  • Create an inter-disciplinary task force focused on getting illegal guns off the streets
  • In partnership with the state, create an emergency mental health intervention program to create ways to help people in immediate crisis who have the potential to harm themselves or others
  • Increasing mental health service capacity
  • While preserving due process, creating a mechanism where someone can voluntarily or involuntarily relinquish their gun ownership rights if they are in mental health crisis and have indicated they want to hurt themselves or others
  • Rename the "Office for Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods" the "Office for Safe and Healthy Families" with a focus on increasing two-parent households and strengthening the nuclear family
  • Refocusing all social support programs in the city and state toward increasing the two-parent nuclear family as the bedrock of a stable society
  • Creating a public health focus on teen and young adult depression focusing particularly on reducing the use of social media in teens which has a direct correlation to depression and suicidal tendencies

Greenberg has long decried a state law requiring guns seized by police to be recirculated to the public via auction. 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.

During his campaign for mayor last year, Greenberg pledged to alter those weapons so that they couldn't be fired before sending them off for auction. His administration announced in February it would require firing pins to be removed, a move Greenberg said is a first step in keeping those guns from possibly returning to Louisville's streets. 

A Democratic-sponsored bill in the 2023 Kentucky General Assembly that would let local governments destroy confiscated firearms did not get assigned to a committee in the Republican-controlled legislature. 

As a result of the Kentucky law, Greenberg said, the AR-15 used in Monday's shooting will eventually be re-sold.

City leaders are hopeful discussions being had now will lead to action from the state that can help prevent future tragedy.

"Where can we find common ground?" Winkler said. "What is the low-hanging fruit that we can address some of the issues and at least start to move in the right direction?"

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