Kentucky 2025 Regular Session

Kentucky House Bill HB234 Latest Draft

Bill / Introduced Version

                            UNOFFICIAL COPY  	25 RS BR 1342 
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AN ACT relating to airport police. 1 
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky: 2 
Section 1.   KRS 16.220 is amended to read as follows: 3 
(1) Subject to the duty to return confiscated firearms to innocent owners pursuant to 4 
KRS 500.090, all firearms confiscated by the Department of Kentucky State Police 5 
and not retained for official use pursuant to KRS 500.090 shall be sold at public 6 
auction to: 7 
(a) Federally licensed firearms dealers holding a license appropriate for the type 8 
of firearm sold; or 9 
(b) For a firearm which was used in a homicide, any person who certifies on a 10 
form provided by the Department of Kentucky State Police prior to placing a 11 
bid that he or she will, upon completion of the auction, leave the firearm with 12 
the Department of Kentucky State Police for destruction. A state or local 13 
government or agency thereof shall not purchase a firearm under this 14 
paragraph.  15 
(2) Any provision of KRS Chapter 45 or 45A relating to disposition of property to the 16 
contrary notwithstanding, the Department of Kentucky State Police shall: 17 
(a) Conduct any auction specified by this section; 18 
(b) Retain for departmental use twenty percent (20%) of the gross proceeds from 19 
any auction specified by this section; 20 
(c) Transfer remaining proceeds of the sale to the account of the Kentucky Office 21 
of Homeland Security for use as provided in subsection (5) of this section; 22 
and 23 
(d) For any sale pursuant to subsection (1)(b) of this section, destroy the firearm. 24 
(3) Prior to the sale of any firearm, the Department of Kentucky State Police shall 25 
make an attempt to determine if the firearm to be sold has been stolen or otherwise 26 
unlawfully obtained from an innocent owner and return the firearm to its lawful 27  UNOFFICIAL COPY  	25 RS BR 1342 
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innocent owner, unless that person is ineligible to purchase a firearm under federal 1 
law. 2 
(4) The Department of Kentucky State Police shall receive firearms and ammunition 3 
confiscated by or abandoned to every law enforcement agency in Kentucky. The 4 
department shall dispose of the firearms received in the manner specified in 5 
subsections (1) and (2) of this section. However, firearms which are not retained for 6 
official use, returned to an innocent lawful owner, or transferred to another 7 
government agency or public museum shall be sold as provided in subsection (1) of 8 
this section. 9 
(5) The proceeds of firearms sales shall be utilized by the Kentucky Office of 10 
Homeland Security to provide grants to city, county, charter county, unified local 11 
government, urban-county government, and consolidated local government police 12 
departments; university safety and security departments organized pursuant to KRS 13 
164.950; school districts that employ special law enforcement officers as defined in 14 
KRS 61.900; airport safety and security departments established under KRS 15 
183.880; and sheriff's departments for the purchase of: 16 
(a) Body armor for sworn peace officers of those departments and service 17 
animals, as defined in KRS 525.010, of those departments; 18 
(b) Firearms or ammunition; 19 
(c) Electronic control devices, electronic control weapons, or electro-muscular 20 
disruption technology; and 21 
(d) Body-worn cameras. 22 
 In awarding grants under this section, the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security 23 
shall give first priority to providing and replacing body armor and second priority to 24 
providing firearms and ammunition, with residual funds available for the purchase 25 
of body-worn cameras, electronic control devices, electronic control weapons, or 26 
electro-muscular disruption technology. Body armor purchased by the department 27  UNOFFICIAL COPY  	25 RS BR 1342 
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receiving grant funds shall meet or exceed the standards issued by the National 1 
Institute of Justice for body armor. No police or sheriff's department shall apply for 2 
a grant to replace existing body armor unless that body armor has been in actual use 3 
for a period of five (5) years or longer. Any department applying for grant funds for 4 
body-worn cameras shall develop a policy for their use and shall submit that policy 5 
with its application for the grant funds to the Office of Homeland Security as part of 6 
the application process. 7 
(6) The Department of Kentucky State Police may transfer a machine gun, short-8 
barreled shotgun, short-barreled rifle, silencer, pistol with a shoulder stock, any 9 
other weapon, or destructive device as defined by the National Firearms Act which 10 
is subject to registration under the National Firearms Act and is not properly 11 
registered in the national firearms transfer records for those types of weapons, to the 12 
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms of the United States Department of 13 
Justice, after a reasonable attempt has been made to transfer the firearm to an 14 
eligible state or local law enforcement agency or to an eligible museum and no 15 
eligible recipient will take the firearm or weapon. National Firearms Act firearms 16 
and weapons which are properly registered and not returned to an innocent lawful 17 
owner or retained for official use as provided in this section shall be sold in 18 
accordance with subsection (1) of this section. 19