The gun that killed Marshall County students could kill again, thanks to lawmakers | Gerth

FRANKFORT, Ky. — At some point, the gun that Gabe Parker allegedly used to shoot classmate after classmate last week — 16 in all — will likely wind up at a state police automotive garage near the airport in Frankfort.

It will arrive there after all possible appeals are finished and there's no chance that the handgun police say the 15-year-old used to kill two classmates and wound 14 others, will be needed in future court proceedings.

And then, in between the six car lifts, in front of the big bay door, in the big airy garage, that gun, along with about 600 others, will be sold to the highest bidder.

From there, it will be displayed in a federally licensed gun shop, sold, and ultimately sent back out on the street where it could sit unused in someone's nightstand, or be taken to the firing range for practice a couple times a month.

Or it could be tucked into the waistband of an angry young man and used in another homicide.

Another murder.

Another killing that's just as heinous, just as unthinkable as the two that were committed a week and a half ago in the commons at Marshall County High School.

It's insanity.

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And it's all because of a Kentucky law passed 20 years ago that requires most guns used in crimes and confiscated by police be sold at auction to help pay for body armor for police.

Prior to that, guns used in crimes were usually destroyed. They were cut into pieces or tossed into industrial furnaces, never to be used to harm anyone again.

But that was before the National Rifle Association owned the Kentucky General Assembly — lock, stock and barrel.

Judges have few options once criminal cases are finished. They can send the guns back to their legal owners if the shooter didn't own the gun, and they can order them destroyed if the gun has been illegally altered.

Other than that, they must order them sold.

When the law first passed, Louisville and Lexington protested it and simply stockpiled the weapons with no plan to ever really auction them off. Two years later, then-state Rep. J. R. Gray pushed through legislation that gave cities 45 days to turn the weapons over to the state police for sale.

Gray is from Benton, the home of the two dead children gunned down as they were about to start their school day.

He was supposed to be representing the people of Marshall County. Turns out, he was really representing the NRA.

It's appalling.

Mike DiGiuro thinks so, too.

He's the father of Trent DiGiuro, the former University of Kentucky football player who was shot to death at an off-campus party in Lexington, where he was celebrating his 21st birthday.

"I don't think that a family whose son or daughter or wife or mother should have to worry about that same gun being out on the streets so it can be used to kill somebody again," DiGiuro said.

"I'd just like to know that the gun that killed Trent is not some place that it could possibly kill again," said DiGiuro, a rock-ribbed conservative who believes "you have the constitutional right to own as many guns as you want, just not that specific gun."

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Over the years, he's tried a couple of times to get the legislature to repeal the law. He's found sponsors but little support because, he was told, the NRA would find an opponent to challenge whoever backs the repeal measure in the next election.

The state police auctions are held six times a year.

On Tuesday, 650 guns — some of which almost assuredly killed someone — were put up for sale, auctioned off like your grandmother's china at an estate sale.

Many of the weapons were cheap handguns made by low-end manufacturers like Hi Point, Lorcin, Bryco and Jimenez — the type of guns that are often used by the folks who make headlines all too often in Louisville.

Those guns often sell at auction for less than $100, said Kentucky State Police Sgt. Josh Lawson. Some guns sell for $400 or $500, he said. But not many.

Former Fayette County Commonwealth's Attorney Ray Larson has also tried to get the law repealed or at least changed to make sure the guns that kill or wound people and ones that are used to assault police officers are destroyed.

"This isn't a gun issue," Larson said. "It’s a big deal to the people who have had their loved ones murdered. It's a victims' issue. Give them the gun and let them destroy it if they want."

Larson, like DiGiuro, is no left-winger. He spent three decades as a prosecutor and has sent two people to Kentucky's death row (and there would be a lot more if he had his way).

The legislature can fix this.

This year, "victims' rights" is the buzzword at the Kentucky Capitol.

Earlier in January, the Kentucky General Assembly passed "Marsy's Law," a constitutional amendment that would extend wide powers to crime victims under the state constitution. It will be on the ballot in November.

Among other things, that measure would give victims the right to be notified of court proceedings, to attend all proceedings, to be heard at plea or sentencing hearings, to obtain reasonable protection from the accused and to be guaranteed a meaningful role in the criminal justice system.

There was a lot of back-slapping and a self-congratulatory press conference after the bill was the first legislation to pass both the House and Senate this year.

But that legislation says nothing about allowing people like the parents of Preston Cope and Bailey Holt, the two teens killed in Marshall County, to decide if the gun that killed their children can ever be used to hurt someone else's children.

Of course, if the General Assembly really wants to protect victims' rights, they could do it with a simple bill that would allow the family of murder victims to order the destruction of the gun that fired the fatal shots.

But to do that, politicians would need to decide that murder victims are more important than guns.

Joseph Gerth's column runs on most Sundays and at various times throughout the week. He can be reached at 502-582-4702 or by email at jgerth@courier-journal.com. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: www.courier-journal.com/josephg.

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