By: José Niño
On August 1, 2023, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas unveiled two gun control proposals that he believes will reduce gun violence during a time when crime has been on the rise in the city.
One of the measures would ban minors from buying ammunition without the consent of a parent. The other measure would prohibit “switches,” devices that can convert handguns into automatic weapons.
Lucas’s intention here is to undermine Missouri’s preemption laws, which bar local governments from crafting their own gun control measures.
“I say clearly and unambiguously, guns and ammunition being given to minors; guns in the hands of the wrong people; guns modified to be more potent, that the prohibition-era machine guns are the problem and are killing our community,” Lucas said during a speech he gave outside of City Hall.
As of August 8, there have been 156 homicides thus far, per data tracked by The Star.
Over the last decade, Missouri has moved in a pro-gun direction. Its biggest highlight was the passage of Constitutional Carry in 2016, which has allowed all lawful individuals in the state to carry a firearm without having to beg the government for permission. In 2021, Missouri continued to push the envelope after it passed the Second Amendment Preservation Act (SAPA). This law bans state agencies from assisting the federal government in enforcing any law, regulation, or rule that the Missouri state government deems as a violation of the Second Amendment.
The passage of such legislative items has helped improve the state’s pro-gun image. According to Guns & Ammo magazine’s latest rankings for “Best States for Gun Owners,” Missouri is ranked in 17th place. However, all of that progress could go to waste if rogue municipal governments start passing their own gun control policies in clear violation of the state’s preemption law.
For that reason, gun owners must be prepared to defend their own backyards from anti-gun encroachments. It’s the areas where we least expect tyranny to emerge where these petty despots try to plant the seeds of tyranny. This will require strong activism to stop these projects in their tracks.
As cliché as it may sound, the price for defending the freedoms our predecessors made great sacrifices to establish is eternal vigilance at all levels of government.
José Niño is a freelance writer based in Austin, Texas. Contact him via Facebook, Twitter, or email him at [email protected]. Get his e-book, The 10 Myths of Gun Control, here. Subscribe to his Substack newsletter here.