The mayor of Louisville is taking aim at his state’s legislation for a law that will allow for the rifle used in Monday’s mass shooting at Old National Bank to be auctioned off.
“Under current Kentucky law, the assault rifle that was used to murder five of our neighbors and shoot at rescuing police officers will one day be auctioned off,” Mayor Craig Greenberg said during a Tuesday press conference at Louisville Metro Hall.
The shooting on Monday claimed the lives of at least five people and injured eight others. The weapon used was purchased legally by the suspected gunman six days prior to his attack, Louisville Metro interim Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel shared during a press conference on Tuesday.
The weapon, an AR-15 rifle, was bought by 25-year-old Connor Sturgeon at a local gun dealership, and because of Kentucky legislation, Greenberg says that the firearm will “be back on the streets one day.”
During the press conference, Greenberg said that his office has directed police to remove the firing pin from the confiscated guns before they are turned over to the state. He says this is the most current legislation allows him to do.
“That’s not enough. It’s time to change this law, and let us destroy illegal guns, and let us destroy the guns that have been used to kill our friends and kill our neighbors,” Greenberg said.
Greenberg has been a supporter of stronger gun laws, and even more so after he narrowly survived a shooting in February 2022, when a candidate for Louisville’s metro council opened fire on him. The weapon the shooter used was purchased at a pawn shop hours before the incident took place.
Greenberg isn’t the only elected Kentucky official to speak up on the state’s laws. Rep. Morgan McGarvey (D-KY) also spoke at the press conference, calling for legislators in his state to use their tools to deal with those who pose “an imminent danger to themselves or to others.”
“We can come together at the federal level to solve this problem which is impacting all of us in a uniquely American way,” McGarvey said. “And get universal background checks so that people who shouldn’t have a gun can’t buy one. That we are taking weapons of war off our streets. That we are helping people who are in crisis.”
Greenberg vowed in 2022 that he would work to reduce crime, and part of his plan included firearms being made inoperable before they are auctioned off.
“We’re spending millions of taxpayer dollars to take illegal guns off the streets, to remove guns from the hands of criminals or people seeking to do harm, and then there is a process in place where these guns end up back on the streets in different people’s hands,” he said in September 2022.
While McGarvey says this shouldn’t be a political issue, until his opponents across the aisle put a real emphasis on stopping gun violence, he says it will remain one.
“That is not a political issue,” McGarvey said. “But it becomes one when Kentucky Republicans would rather ban books and pronouns and then make Kentucky a sanctuary state for weapons.”
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