The AR-15 rifle used in the mass killing at a Kentucky bank will soon be hitting the auction block.
You heard it right. Kentucky gun laws are so lax that firearms seized by law enforcement are required to be sold at auction.
There is one caveat … the firearms can only be bought by federally licensed gun dealers, specifically holding licenses for the weapons they purchase.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg blasted the state law at a press conference Monday after Connor Sturgeon murdered 5 employees with an AR-15 at the bank before he was killed by police. Sturgeon had previously been given notice he was going to be fired from the downtown Louisville bank.
Greenberg fumed, “The laws we have now are enabling violence and murder. Think about that: that murder weapon will be back on the streets one day.”
He continued, “It’s time to change this law and let us destroy illegal guns and destroy the guns that have been used to kill our friends and kill our neighbors.”
Greenberg went on to say that leaders must act immediately to stop the “gun violence epidemic.”
Kentucky is one of the most firearm-friendly states east of the Mississippi.
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Kentucky has some of the highest gun-related death rates in the country, which some experts attribute to relaxed laws for gun purchases and a lack of training that’s required for legally bought firearms.
Universal background checks are also absent in Kentucky, so anyone can buy a gun without leaving a record behind, making it hard for law enforcement to trace the transaction if a crime is committed.