Focus put on gun rights in Missouri
Fewer limits in place since the GOP took legislative control
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — The shooting that killed one person and wounded 22 others during the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory parade occurred in a state with few gun regulations and historic tension over how major cities handle crime.
The shooting, which Kansas City police said appeared to stem from a dispute among several people, happened Wednesday despite the presence of more than 800 police officers.
Two juveniles have been charged, authorities said Friday.
Notably, dozens of policymakers from Missouri and neighboring Kansas were caught in the chaos as throngs of fans scattered at the sound of gunshots. Lawmakers and elected officials who witnessed the havoc included Republican Missouri Gov. Mike Parson and Democratic Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, whose security detail heard the shots after she’d gotten in her car to leave, a spokesperson said.
Democratic Missouri state Rep. Maggie Nurrenbern of Kansas City said she was inside the city’s historic Union Station when the shooting began. She said she and her sister ran and used their bodies to hide and shield fleeing children.
“I’m hurt. I’m angry,” Nurrenbern wrote in a post on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter. “And I’m more resolved than ever to make sure kids can grow up in a Missouri free from gun violence.”
But what, if any, action Missouri’s Republican-led Legislature will take in response to the shooting is unclear.
“Policing a free nation is difficult,” GOP state Rep. Lane Roberts said Thursday. “So when we try to do things that augment the efforts of our police agencies without treading on the rights of other people, it can be a real difficult balance.”
Missouri has some of the most expansive guns rights among states as a result of a series of measures passed over the past few decades.
Before the GOP won full control of the Legislature in the 2002 elections, concealed weapons were outlawed and handguns could be purchased only after a background check and permit from local sheriffs. Republican lawmakers repealed those restrictions within their first decade of power, and gun shops saw rising sales.
Missouri has no age restrictions on gun use and possession, although federal law largely prohibits minors from carrying handguns.
Voters fortified gun rights in 2014, approving a constitutional amendment placed on the ballot by lawmakers making the right to bear arms “unalienable” and subjecting any restrictions “to strict scrutiny.”
Two years later, the Republican supermajority overrode a veto of thenGov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, to allow most adults to carry concealed guns without needing a permit. The legislation also created a “stand-your-ground” right, expanding the legal use of guns in self-defense.
A 2021 Missouri law pressed gun rights even further, prohibiting local police from enforcing federal gun restrictions. The measure was struck down by a federal judge last year and remains on hold while under appeal.
Current Republican legislative leaders have expressed little interest in any laws that would restrict firearm use and possession in Missouri.
Last year, Roberts — a former police chief from southwestern Missouri who later joined the Legislature — proposed limiting children from openly carrying guns in public without parental supervision in an effort to combat rising crime in St. Louis. The bill failed 104-39. Only one Republican voted in support of it.
Republican House Speaker Dean Plocher left a news conference Thursday after being asked by reporters for details on the GOP strategy for addressing crime and when questioned about last year’s vote on children carrying firearms.
An exception to Republicans’ resistance to gun regulations is an effort to crack down on celebratory gunfire, which has been an issue in Kansas City.
Missouri’s Legislature passed a bill last year to make shooting a firearm within city limits a misdemeanor for the first offense, with exceptions. The bill was named for Blair Shanahan Lane, an 11-year-old who was dancing with a sparkler on July 4, 2011, outside her suburban Kansas City home and was struck in the neck by a stray bullet.
Blair’s Law was part of a sweeping crime bill that was later vetoed by Parson for unrelated reasons. The Missouri House gave approval to similar legislation two days before the Chiefs’ parade.
Other GOP-backed bills advancing in the House would exempt guns and ammunition from sales tax and allow people with concealed-gun permits to bring weapons onto public transportation. House Majority Leader Jonathan Patterson said last week that “it’s common sense to allow lawful concealed-carrying permit holders to be able to protect themselves” on buses and trains.
A large portion of the Kansas City metropolitan area is in Kansas, and Lisa Lopez-Galvan, the 43-yearold radio DJ who was killed Wednesday, lived on the Kansas side.
The most visible and active gun safety movement in Kansas is in the Kansas City area. But Kansas law favors gun rights as much as Missouri’s does, and Kansas added an amendment to fortify gun rights in its constitution four years before Missouri did — with 88% of the vote.
The number of killings in Kansas City rose to a record level last year, up to 182. Kansas City police data shows that there were 12 more killings in 2023 than in 2022 and three more than the previous high of 179 in 2020. The police department data does not include officer-involved killings.
Kansas City’s elected officials are limited in what they can do.
Kansas City, with a population of about 508,000, is the only Missouri city without local control of its police force. It’s believed to be the largest city in the country in that situation, the mayor’s office has said.
Leaders in the largely Democratic city don’t hire the police chief or determine how the department spends its tax dollars. A 1930s-era law gives that power to a five-member board largely appointed by the Missouri governor, who since 2017 has been a Republican.
Missouri law also prohibits cities from enacting more stringent regulations on guns than state law does, although Kansas City bans gunfire within the city.
In recent years, mayors of Kansas City and St. Louis have fought for control of their cities’ public safety policies with primarily Republican lawmakers who argue that high crime rates in the cities mean local leaders are failing. GOP lawmakers have also repeatedly rebuffed requests to allow urban areas to adopt stricter gun policies compared to the rest of the state.