KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Following a mass shooting at Crown Center on Wednesday, KSHB 41 reached out to hear about the building's staffing for security.
Crown Center declined an interview, but we noticed signs prohibiting weapons, including firearms, at the entrances.
Missouri is an open carry state, but state statute requires a business prohibiting guns to have an 11x14 sign with lettering at least an inch high.
Crown Center falls a few inches short, but the posted signs make it clear no one should have been carrying a gun inside.
Kevin Jamison, a criminal defense attorney, has spent years studying laws about firearms.
"95% or so of mass murders we've had in the U.S. have been in no gun areas; schools and areas where people aren't allowed to carry guns," Jamison said.
He said when shootings of this magnitude happen, people usually believe something should be done like stricter gun control laws.
"Generally speaking, bad people will do bad things and laws don't prevent that," Jamison said. "I don't find they've been generally successful. Bad people obtain firearms and other weapons by illegal means."
He explained there are ramifications for people who violate a no gun policy at a business.
"They would be asked to leave of course, and if they refuse to leave and police are called, they get a ticket," he said. "It's a $100 fine for the first offense, and it gets progressively more serious after that. An aggressive prosecutor might file trespassing charges, but I haven't heard of that happening yet."
Missouri House Rep. Richard Brown has been pushing for tighter gun laws and he has personal reasons for it.
"I'm a retired school teacher by profession," he said. "Many children under my direct care were killed by handguns and that [the weight] is what I carry every day."
With Missouri being a gun-friendly state, Brown believes he and his colleagues are in the minority, but he's still proposing legislation.
HB 1458 would prohibit people convicted of domestic abuse from owning firearms. He said that’s already a federal law, but there isn't a way to enforce it, because it isn’t in state statute.
HB 1459 would allow local municipalities to enact their own gun legislation.
"The violence has to come to an end," Brown said. "We gotta slow it down."
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