After KC shooting, Kris Kobach says ‘good guy with a gun’ needed to stop mass killings
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas says "It seems like almost nothing is safe."
Fans dispersing after cops clear the area at the Chiefs victory event, post-shooting. // Photo by Jim Nimmo
Stopping mass shootings requires armed citizens, not gun control, Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach said a day after 22 people were shot in Kansas City, Missouri.
Three individuals were taken into custody in downtown Kansas City on Wednesday after a mass shooting at a parade celebrating the Chiefs second consecutive Super Bowl victory. One person was killed and 21 injured, including several children.
There were more than 800 officers from Kansas City and surrounding jurisdictions onsite when gunfire began, including officers on the ground and stationed on rooftops.
Wednesday’s shooting brought Missouri’s gun laws — some of the most lax in the nation — to the forefront as Missouri Democratic officials called once again for stricter gun laws. Republicans downplayed the potential impact of any new restrictions.
And the shooting played out as Kansas City also recorded its largest number of homicides ever in 2023, according to the Kansas City Star. Missouri has the 9th highest rate of firearm deaths among states. Kansas ranks 19th.
But following a press conference, Kobach reaffirmed his support for a proposed state constitutional amendment protecting possession and use of firearms.
Photo by Jim Nimmo
The presence of a “good guy with a gun” is “the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun,” Kobach said, calling it “essential.”
Kobach said, based on police statements, it doesn’t sound like the Kansas City shooter or shooters had intent to kill parade goers. Police have said the shooting seemed to stem from a dispute between individuals.
But in other mass shooting situations, he said stopping the violence is up to armed bystanders.
“Having armed citizens affords a greater degree of protection in any situation,” Kobach said.
Asked how armed citizens could halt mass shootings when 800 police officers’ presence didn’t stop Wednesday’s tragedy, Kobach said police weren’t close enough to the situation.
“That’s one of the major reasons why we need good citizens to be armed to help because there just aren’t enough law enforcement officers to protect everybody everywhere at every time,” he said.
Photo by Jim Nimmo
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas commended law enforcement’s response to the shooting in a televised news conference after the shooting Wednesday. But asked about the shooting occurring despite there being 800 officers at the parade, he said “that’s what happens with guns.”
“We had security in any number of places, eyes on top of buildings and beyond, and there still is a risk to people,” Lucas said, “and I think that’s something that all of us who are parents, who are just regular people living each day, have to decide what we wish to do about it.”
He added: “Parades, rallies, schools, movies — it seems like almost nothing is safe, and we had hundreds of law enforcement there working hard today.”
Lucas told KSHB 41 Thursday morning that he doesn’t think it’s “crazy to say that guns are part of the problem.”
Missouri has the third-weakest gun laws in the U.S., according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Since 2007, the state has permitted residents to obtain firearms without a permit, which led to between a 25% and 47% rise in homicides and a 23.5% increase in suicides by firearm, according to the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research.
And in 2021, the state passed the “Second Amendment Protection Act,” which declared federal gun laws unenforceable and imposes penalties on Missouri police departments that cooperate with federal agencies enforcing gun laws.
Kansas City police requested that victims and witnesses of the shooting contact them with any information to aid in their investigation at 816-413-3477.
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