KANSAS CITY, Mo. — This year is on track to be the deadliest year in Kansas City, Missouri's history, with the 117th homicide of 2023 taking place Tuesday morning.
On the morning of his inauguration, KCMO Mayor Quinton Lucas sat down with KSHB 41 News anchors Lindsay Shively and Taylor Hemness to discuss efforts to stop violence in the community.
"The first thing that goes through my mind, though, is that it needs to change," Lucas shared. "I grew up in Kansas City. I knew a Kansas City that was too violent. We broke a homicide record in the early 1990s, and it is heartbreaking that 25 years later, we're seeing the same things happen."
Lucas said he recognizes firearms play a large role in the tragedies — from homicides to firearm accidents and suicides.
Of the 117 homicides that have occurred up to the morning of Aug. 1, KCPD reports 111 involved a firearm. And while non-fatal shooting rates are down, Lucas said homicide rates are rising.
"That tells you that people are using stronger firearms that are shooting and hitting more people, that we're having more injuries in connection with every shooting," Lucas said. "The guns are part of the discussion."
The mayor will announce new gun violence prevention measures during his inauguration at 10 a.m. Tuesday. Prior to the inauguration, he will be joined by Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones and Mom's Demand Action executive director Angela Ferrell-Zabala at a gun violence prevention roundtable and listening session.
Lucas told Shively and Hemness that the city's proposals will aim to limit the transfer of ammunition to minors and ban the possession of switches, which are devices that can modify handguns into fully-automatic weapons.
"Some of our more prominent shootings this summer that have been in clubs and others that have hit lots of people are a result of those types of devices," Lucas said.
While Lucas said he hopes new policies bring change, he also believes laws aren't enough. The city is working with crime-prevention groups, like Mom's Demand Action, to work toward a safer community.
When Shively asked the mayor why he feels these efforts will work, he admitted that he doesn't know if they will.
"But I know that we have to make sure we continue to find an answer," he said. "If you have an illness in your own life or your own home, you keep trying. You don't just stop and say, 'I'm going to give up tomorrow.' These lives are too important. The families and the impact that we're seeing in our community is too important."
Ferrell-Zabala with Mom's Demand Action, an organization fighting for public safety nationwide, also sat down with Hemness and Shively Tuesday morning.
"While we want to focus on stronger gun laws and common-sense solutions, we also need to see this as a holistic public health crisis," Ferrell-Zabala said. "That means centering the voices of survivors of gun violence, looking at communities that are disproportionately impacted — Black and Brown communities, particularly."
She also said it's important to reinvest in communities to create alternatives to violence.
"This is something that's not an inevitability, we can change this," she said. "The fact that this is the leading cause of death for kids and teens and young adults in this country is unacceptable."
Ferrell-Zabala told KSHB 41 News the United States is a "nation of survivors," and around 59% of adults in the U.S. identify as someone who has either personally been impacted by gun violence or who knows someone who has been impacted by gun violence.
Lucas will reveal details of his public safety policy initiatives later Tuesday morning.
"What we do need to realize is that cooperation is key, that being honest about the problem is key, because what we can't do is act like it's something that is in another community," Lucas said. "This impacts all of us, and as we talk about this great brand for Kansas City, we can't ignore this very real issue."
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