LOUISVILLE, Ky. — In a show of bipartisan effort, two Louisville senators are looking to end the recycling of gun violence in Louisville through new legislation.
Sen. Karen Berg, D-Louisville, and Sen. Julie Raque Adams, R-Louisville, co-sponsored Senate Bill 178.
Filed Wednesday, it would require Kentucky State Police (KSP) to destroy any confiscated guns used in violent crimes, instead of auctioning them off, as required under current state law.
"There's no way they should be auctioned off to no one else; that doesn't make any sense," Nachand Trabue, a Louisville mother who lost her 23-year-old son, Makel Coleman, in July 2023 to gun violence, said. "We don't want this to recycle."
More specifically the bill said, " ... if the firearm was used in the commission of an offense that would classify a person as a violent offender under KRS 439.3401, then the firearm shall be destroyed."
The auction is run through KSP's Law Enforcement Protection Program, which first started in 1998, according to the KSP website.
"Proceeds from these sales of confiscated firearms have been instrumental in equipping Kentucky law enforcement personnel with personal body armor and other equipment which enabled officers to better serve the citizens of Kentucky," the program's web page stated.
Under current Kentucky law, about 80% of the revenue generated from KSP auctions is sent to the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security (KOHS). KOHS then allocates funding to local police departments across the Commonwealth.
The funding provides departments with tools and resources like body armor, firearms, ammunition, electronic control devices, electronic control weapons, body-worn cameras, etc.
"For us, it's a benefit to the community because we're able to fund police departments to be able to buy equipment that's necessary for them to do their job," St. Matthews Assistant Police Chief Eddie Jones said.
The department was awarded $193,000 through the program this past year, Jones said, which it used to replace old tasers and handguns, make operations system upgrades and launch new training programs.
"It benefits the smaller departments in the state," Jones said. "If they start removing those guns, it's going to hurt police departments out here trying to protect their communities."
It remains unclear what impact the bill would have on funding. As it stands, there is no publicly available information on the percentage of auctioned-off firearms that were previously used to commit murder.
Still, Jones pointed to what's at stake if smaller police departments lose a critical resource.
But for grieving families like Trabue's, the only thing that matters, is preventing more loss and heartbreak.
"I want this to be where these guns are not back out in the streets killing someone else and then destroying someone else's family," Trabue said.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg boldly advocated for similar laws following the mass shooting at Old National Bank in April 2023.
“Let us destroy illegal guns and destroy the guns that have been used to kill our friends and kill our neighbors," Greenberg said, during an April 11 press conference. "We need help from our friends in Frankfort ... This isn't about partisan politics; this is about life and death. This is about preventing tragedies.”
When asked about Senate Bill 178, Greenberg released the following statement:
"No gun is more important than the life of a loved one. Yet, we know that weapons sold at these state auctions have made their way back to the streets and were used again to commit crimes. I thank my Louisville colleagues in the General Assembly for their leadership on ending this recycling of gun violence and for their commitment to making Louisville safer."
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