JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (news agencies) — The shooting that wounded more than 20 people and killed one 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 on Thursday said appeared to stem from a dispute between several people, happened despite the presence of more than 800 police officers on hand.
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 firsthand 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.”
Here’s a look at Missouri’s gun policies and how elected officials want to address crime:
Missouri has some of the most expansive guns rights among states as a result of a series of measures passed by the Republican-led Legislature 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 Republican lawmakers repealed those restrictions within their first decade of power, and gun shops saw rising sales.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 currently 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 in Missouri’s Legislature overrode a veto of then-Gov. 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 got 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.
Rep. Roberts — a former police chief from southwestern Missouri who later joined the Legislature — last year 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 by a 104-39 vote. Only one Republican voted in support of it.
Republican House Speaker Dean Plocher abruptly 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.
A rare exception to Republicans’ fierce resistance to gun regulations is an effort to crack down on celebratory gunfire, which has been an issue in Kansas City.
Missouri’s Legislature last year passed a bill to make shooting a firearm within city limits a misdemeanor for the first offense, with exceptions. The bill was named after 11-year-old Blair Shanahan Lane, 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 just two days before the Chiefs’ parade.
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