Missouri also has one of the largest number of total mass shootings in the US.
Kansas City Beacon February 15th
It’s possible to imagine Kansas City — anguished by chronic gun violence and freshly angered by Wednesday’s nightmarish Super Bowl rally — clamping down on guns.
If only it could.
State lawmakers and the governor of Missouri see guns more as a tool of self-defense than as the source of carnage. They put laws in place that bar Kansas City, Jackson County or anywhere else in the state from imposing local gun control.
Likewise, Kansas suburbs would find their hands similarly tied when it comes to placing tighter local limits on firearms.
But some local politicians appear determined to try anyway, pushing for local action even if it means a possibly doomed battle to try to overcome state restrictions on what gun restrictions a city or county can impose within its borders.
“Give me the biggest, baddest, toughest common-sense gun reform options that we have,” said Jackson County Legislator Manny Abarca IV. “We’ll deal with preemption” — the state ban on local restrictions — “later.”
In Missouri, you don’t need a permit to buy or carry a gun. You don’t need a permit to carry a concealed weapon (with a few exceptions for certain locations). The state doesn’t allow “recklessly” selling or lending a gun to anyone under 18 without the consent of the child’s parent or guardian.
In Kansas, anyone over 21 can carry a concealed weapon without a license. People under 21 get a standard concealed-carry license while people under 18 get a provisional license. There is no minimum age to get a gun and no background checks are required.
Missouri gun laws block cities from passing their own restrictions
Missouri, Kansas and 43 other states have preemption laws that bar cities from passing local gun restrictions.
Both Kansas and Missouri have Republican-controlled legislatures that regularly reject gun control bills.
“Missouri’s preemption law is extraordinarily broad,” said Alison Shih, senior counsel at Everytown for Gun Safety. “Missouri has tied the hands of local governments from putting in place proactive measures to prevent exactly this kind of tragedy from happening.”