KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) – When gunfire erupted just minutes after the Chiefs Super Bowl victory rally in February, many asked how it could happen with more than 800 law enforcement officers on hand in an effort to keep the event safe. It is something one local lawmaker wants to address when the Missouri General Assembly convenes next month.
State Representative Anthony Ealy, a Democrat from Grandview, was among the state and local leaders rushed to the basement of Union Station when the sound of shots punctuated the crowd.
Five days later, he introduced legislation to outlaw bringing readily lethal weapons to a parade and requiring parade sponsors to set up checkpoints for security screening. This session, he has pre-filed a new bill with the same language. He spoke to KCTV5 the day the original bill got its second reading.
“The fact that they were able to even have guns in their backpacks on their persons around hundreds of thousands of people it is just crazy and there has to be an answer to that,” Ealy said.
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas ran when he heard the gunfire. He too wants a solution.
“It is an experience that many of us will not forget,” Lucas said. “I think it is important that we not just move on, but we continue to say, ‘How can we make our community safer?’”
The shooting injured at least two dozen people and killed Lisa Lopez-Galvan. Court documents associated with federal gun crimes charges a month later indicated that at least 12 people pulled out guns and six fired.
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House Bill No. 94 has two components. The criminal portion would add to what fits the crime of unlawful use of weapons.
It currently prohibits bringing a “firearm of any other weapon readily capable of lethal use” into a place of worship, an election precinct on election day, and any government building. The bill would add a “parade zone during parade hours” to restricted places.
That part, Lucas said, gives law enforcement a leg up.
“I particularly like the portion where it bans the carry of those types of weapons in those crowded areas,” he remarked. “I think that is something that could be helpful for all of us.”
The portion of the law that requires parade hosts to create secure checkpoints is one that Lucas concedes is impractical. It could be cost-prohibitive, and it’s logistically difficult to accomplish in such a large area.
The bill requires that people entering a parade zone pass through a metal detector or be “otherwise scanned by security officers to determine whether the person possesses a firearm.”
A checkpoint existed at the NFL Draft in Kansas City in 2023. They are standard at big stadium events and will no doubt be part of World Cup game security. But those are more confined spaces than a parade.
“When you fill up a good chunk of downtown Kansas City, that becomes something that’s harder to put up,” said Lucas. “I think there are a great many challenges relating to how you build a perimeter, how you set things up all around. But I am always willing to have a conversation about how we make our community safer.”
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The parade restrictions in the bill are limited events hosted by governmental entities. A parade zone is defined as the route and “any public area within one mile.”
The rally shooting was a source of physical and emotional trauma for so many who attended. But people sneak guns into places where it’s already illegal, which is why Lucas emphasized that there’s much more to a solution than checkpoints.
“I think for us long term, the real solution, is to figure it out how we get guns off the street, particularly crime guns, those that have been used in crimes again and again; how we make them harder to get for young people, including a lot of our youthful shooters who were involved in this incident,” Lucas said. “We don’t have to live this way.”
Missouri has some of the least restrictive gun laws in the nation. It no longer requires any training or permit to carry a concealed firearm. That went away in 2017.
KCTV5 reached out to Ealy to discuss HB94. He declined to make himself available, citing scheduling conflicts.
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