We shouldn't have to live like this

Another day of celebration ends in gunfire close to home

Victory to shock

I’m a fortunate man. Working in politics and media has allowed me to meet and get to know some really cool people. One I’ve had the privilege to spend time with is Mayor Quinton Lucas of Kansas City. Everyone calls him Mayor Q. He’s a good guy. I was just texting him Monday morning about the incredible Chiefs win Sunday night and his excitement to host another victory parade.

As I write this I am watching my friend talk about the shooting of 22 people as that parade ended. He had to flee with his wife and thousands others at a parade attended by hundreds of thousands of people.

There were over 800 law enforcement officers in the area and in just seconds one person was dead and over two dozen injured.

Seconds.

It happened in Missouri

Missouri is a sad and unnecessary example of what can happen when the only thing driving our politics is an untethered obsession with guns and gun industry money fueling a Republican super majority for 20 years. For years they have dismantled any laws that have any restrictions on guns to an extreme that is unprecedented in the nation. The state is rated as 48th in gun safety laws.

Here is a sample list:

• No background checks for private sales

• No permit required for concealed carry

• No permit required for open carry

• No license required for owners

• No firearms registration

• No assault weapon laws or restrictions

• No magazine capacity restrictions

• No red flag laws of any kind

• No age restrictions on open carry

According to Everytown for Gun Safety four years ago: “Guns are the leading cause of death among children and teens in Missouri. In Missouri, an average of 131 children and teens die by guns every year, of which 31% of these deaths are suicides and 62% are homicides. In the US, 33% of all gun deaths among children and teens are suicides and 62% are homicides.”

This is before we the Republicans passed their insane law forcing law enforcment to not cooperate with Federal agencies on guns. We haven’t even talked about how Republicans have purposely made it impossible for the two major cities to pass their own gun restrictions of any kind and have actively undermined their efforts to fight the scourge of gun violence. They do this while actively attacking the cities leadership for the wave of crime they have all but encouraged and armed.

From Everytown’s Missouri Gun Violence Report

This is a choice made by Republican lawmakers, politicians, and lobbyists to flood the state with guns and then offer ‘thoughts and prayers’ when that flood leads inevitably to death and loss.

What happened?

We don’t know what happened in Kansas City. The parade was over. Crowds were filing to their cars. The area of the shooting was a crowded walkway heading to a parking lot. CNN quoted a witness whose wife and child were shot:

Shooting survivor Jacob Gooch Sr., who was shot in the ankle, told CBS Thursday he overheard an altercation prior to the shooting, in which a girl told someone else, “Don’t do it, not here, this is stupid.”

Gooch – who said his wife and son were also shot – told “CBS Mornings” his wife and daughter then saw someone draw a gun.

“My daughter said that some lady was, like, holding him back,” Gooch said, “and people had started backing up and then he pulled it out and just started shooting and spinning in a circle.”

So, it sounds like what has become just normal in a country awash with guns. I call it the “Fuck you…fuck you…<bang bang bang>” shooting. What in another time was two people arguing that ended in chest bumping or fists now ends in gunshots with high powered weapons that can empty dozens of rounds in literal seconds.

This one left at least 19 shot, a wonderful mother dead, and dozens more injured from the melee that followed including nearly a dozen children.

This was posted from a witness and I could not agree more.

Notice the sign this fool of a governor is standing in front of? “Frontier Justice.” is what he wanted when he removed more gun laws. Now a mother is dead. Hundreds traumatized. Was that frontier justice, Governor Parson?

Reasonable change is possible

The ludicrousness of unlimited open carry of deadly weapons is so obvious its stupid. The idea that you can own a deadly machine that can kill dozens in seconds without any license, insurance, training, or storage requirements is so monumentally insane it’s hard to believe even the gun industry fights it. They could make millions off the requirement to train their customers alone.

Red flag laws that secure weapons when someone is in crisis are not government overreach they are life saving. In Missouri not only is it illegal to take guns but if someone does take some away, like law enforcement, they can actually be sued by the gun owner…even if he was planning on committing a crime.

Demand change.

Demand more than fucking thoughts and prayers.