Murder weapons may be taken off the Kentucky State Police auction block under Senate Bill 144, sponsored by Republican Senator Danny Carroll.

The issue of seized guns being resold to the public became a statewide discussion following a deadly mass shooting in Louisville two years ago.

Legislation about this issue hasn't gone far in the past, but Senate Bill one 44th May have a better chance.

Our Mckenzi Spink has more.

Currently in Kentucky, every gun confiscated by law enforcement is resold at a public auction.

This practice came under intense scrutiny after the Old National Bank shooting in Louisville in 2023.

The gunman used an AR 15 rifle to kill five people and injured several more, including Lmpd officer Nicholas Wilt.

Families of the victims, as well as the family of the shooter, asked for the gun to be destroyed, and although it was eventually destroyed, that's because it was seized by the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which chose to destroy the gun following its investigation into the shooting.

Due to a law passed in 1998, if the weapon had been returned to Kentucky State Police, it would have gone to auction.

Senate Bill 144 would require that weapons used in homicides be destroyed instead.

This bill primarily deals with the destruction of firearms used in homicides.

The bill also allows the commissioner or the commissioner's designee to order the destruction of weapons that have been defaced, where they can no longer be identified, or contaminated with hazardous substances, is unsafe to discharge, and is subject to return to an innocent owner who has requested that the firearm be destroyed.

Funds from the public auctions held by Kentucky State Police provide equipment to the department, as well as other police agencies concerned about losing the money.

The homicide weapons brought in came up during discussion.

It reads in the in the first part, of what the law used to be, if we were to change this, that the state police would auction this off and then it would be destroyed.

Are you all losing out on some funds that because I know a lot of those auctions are the money would go back to, KSP?

Can you speak to that?

I can't tell you how much funds we would lose on homicide weapons, because we don't track that right now.

Okay, so there's no way for us to know which weapons were used in a homicide when they're turned into us.

So everything gets auctioned off.

I can tell you that we.

The auction brings it in about 11.

$2 million a year.

Wow.

And then the state police keeps about 20% of that.

The rest goes to Kentucky Homeland Security for for weapons and fast for other police agencies.

There is a fiscal impact statement attached to this bill, which details how much money the proposed legislation would take away from state or county budgets.

The attached statement shows that the Kentucky Sheriffs Association and the Kentucky Fraternal Order of Police believe there would be a significant fiscal impact to local sheriffs offices, especially smaller police departments, because of the training, supplies and storage equipment required to house and destroy these weapons.

However, the statement did not come up in today's committee discussion.

The bill passed unanimously out of the Senate Veterans, Military Affairs and Public Protection Committee.

Senate Bill 144 will now head to the full Senate for consideration.

For Kentucky, edition, I'm McKenzie Spink.

Thank you, McKenzie, for that.

Louisville Democrat Senator Karen Burg has filed legislation to require the destruction of weapons used in violent crimes in years past.

But those bills have not been successful.

Last year, Senate Bill 178 was co-sponsored by Republican Senator Julie Rocky Adams in an effort to demonstrate the bipartisan support for the measure.

But it died in committee.