LOUISVILLE, Ky. — In his second month in office, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg is doubling down on a top public safety proposal he made on the campaign trail, addressing what he calls an illegal gun crisis.
On Thursday, Greenberg announced a new plan for confiscated guns to prevent them from again being used in violent crimes across the city.
Joined by Interim Louisville Metro Police (LMPD) Chief Jackie Gwinn-Villaroel, the mayor revealed a memorandum he sent to her this week -- effective Thursday. It directs LMPD to remove the firing pins from all guns they seize before turning them over to Kentucky State Police (KSP), which effectively disables them.
Current state law requires this change of hands, where these guns are then often put up for auction.
"These guns that are used to commit crimes end up back on our streets, and too often guns that are used to commit crimes are used to commit another crime," Greenberg said. "That needs to stop."
Back in September, prior to being elected, one of Greenberg's main proposals to make the city safer was to address stolen guns on the street, to render confiscated guns inoperative before sending them to KSP.
But this original plan was to disable them completely, keeping them from ever being used again.
In this plan, each removed firing pin will be paired with the gun it came from in the package sent to Frankfort. In the memo sent to LMPD, Greenberg says "after the transfer it will be possible to re-insert the firing pin into its corresponding firearm at the option of the recipient."
Essentially, the state can still choose to make the firearms usable again before selling them to the public.
Greenberg says this is as much as the city can do under its own power while still abiding by state statute. He's calling on the General Assembly in Frankfort to pass legislation allowing confiscated guns to be destroyed.
In a one-on-one interview with Greenberg weeks ago, he told WHAS 11 News that strict state laws on anything related to firearms have made this effort more difficult than he anticipated, but he said his team was "working through that."
Additionally, part of the mayor's directive is for LMPD to attach a warning label on all confiscated guns, alerting future buyers that the firearm may have been used in a homicide. The label states the number of murders caused by gunshot wounds in Louisville in 2022 (146), as well as the number of kids in the city who were lost to gun violence in that same time period (14).
"Every time someone is shot and killed, it impacts a family, a workplace, a church, a neighborhood, and entire community," Greenberg said. "Every time someone picks up a gun and uses it to hurt someone else in our city, hundreds of people are affected."
As part of this announcement, Greenberg is advocating for legislation filed by state Rep. Keturah Herron (D-42) of Louisville. House Bill 325 would go as far as to allow confiscated guns to be destroyed.
The exact verbiage in HB 325 calls to, "Amend KRS 500.090 to allow consolidated local governments to destroy firearms abandoned, confiscated, or forfeited under the Kentucky Penal Code."
"These are guns that have been used to kill children, to tear families apart and destroy the lives of countless people throughout our city," Greenberg said. "My hope is that everyone across the state of Kentucky views this as a common sense law that lets Louisville address our unique gun violence crisis in a unique way to ensure that illegal guns are never used to commit another crime again."
The mayor said this issue is personal for everyone. He added that Gwinn-Villaroel recently lost her young nephew to gun violence.
"The impact of violence never goes away. The residual effects last for years to come," Gwinn-Villaroel said. "Gun violence in Louisville, in any city, should not be tolerated."
Greenberg said over 90 percent of Louisville's homicides, and a majority of suicides, involve a gun.
The Kentucky State Fraternal Order of Police issued a response to Greenberg's firearm announcement stating:
"We appreciate and share Mayor Greenberg's desire to see a more safer Louisville but this will not achieve that objective. Statewide, this will have far reaching ramifications for police & sheriff's departments that rely on funds from the sale of these firearms to purchase life saving body armor for law enforcement. Statistics show that the firearms sold at KSP auctions do not end up back in Louisville. Further, these firearms are sold only to FFL dealers and not the general public. The Kentucky State FOP opposes HB325 and any legislation rendering firearms unusable."
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