COLUMBIA, Monday — Missouri’s Republican-led House on Monday passed a bill to ban celebratory gunfire in cities, less than a week after a deadly shooting during the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl parade left some lawmakers in attendance clogged bathrooms.
Kansas City police have said the shooting appeared to be the result of a dispute between several people and not celebratory gunfire. One woman was killed and 22 people were injured. About half of the injured were younger than 16 years old.
But the largely bipartisan bill on festive gunfire represents a rare attempt to regulate guns in a state with some of the most comprehensive gun ownership laws.
Already emotional Republicans and Democrats used Monday’s debate on the measure to battle over how best to address last week’s shooting and gun violence more broadly.
Kansas City Democratic Rep. Patty Lewis spoke through tears as she described hiding in an alcove to avoid being trampled.
“What saddened me the most was the fear that nothing would happen,” Lewis said, referring to the state’s gun laws. “I’ve seen it happen over and over again.”
Republican Rep. Ben Baker spoke out against an emotional response to the shooting, as Democrats shouted at him from across the House of Representatives.
“There is always a call for stricter gun laws. It is the almost immediate response of many in this body when something like this happens,” Baker said. “But the fact is that no law we could have passed in this body could have prevented last week’s terrible tragedy.”
Lawmakers soon after voted 120-26 to make discharging a firearm within city limits a misdemeanor for the first offense, with exceptions.
The measure is named after 11-year-old Blair Shanahan Lane, who was dancing with a sparkler outside her suburban Kansas City home on July 4, 2011, and was hit in the neck by a stray bullet.
Missouri lawmakers had passed Blair’s Law last year as part of a sweeping crime-related bill, but Republican Party Governor Mike Parson vetoed the legislation. He cited problems with other crime provisions in the bill that were not related to celebratory gunfire.
Republican Rep. Chad Perkins on Monday criticized some Democrats for voting against the bill last year, highlighting tensions between the two parties over the issue.
“I am disgusted by the hypocrisy of the other side,” Perkins shouted into a microphone. “It is this side that voted for a gun law.”
Majority Leader Jon Patterson, who lives in a Kansas City suburb, told reporters Monday that Republicans in the House of Representatives are “pretty adamant” in their support for “the rights of law-abiding citizens.” But he said lawmakers should be open to broad policy solutions in response to the shooting.
“What happened last week was tragic,” Patterson said. “So we have to be willing to look at gun policy, social policy, mental health policy, public safety policy and crime policy to address these issues.”