Kansas City Mayor Sly James is ready again to knock his head up against the hard, never-bending wall created by gun-happy Missouri legislators in Jefferson City.

I don’t think he’s going to have any more luck this time than he did last. However, for the sake of a safer Kansas City, he must keep trying to shed some light on the subject of guns in the dark hallways of the Capitol.

Question: Do these legislators really hate Kansas City and St. Louis so much — or are so stupendously ill-informed about the cities’ needs — that the lawmakers are going to let their love of guns allow criminals to have an easier time escaping law enforcement officials in the future?

First, James wanted lawmakers to give his city more tools to control the flood of guns on urban streets. Nope, said the Republican-controlled legislature.

Now — in conjunction with St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay — James wants to stop the General Assembly from approving an appalling bill that would prevent city officials from working with federal agents to crack down on crime in their cities.

The two mayors

that lays out the brutal reality of what the state lawmakers are trying to do now.

It’s all about House Bill 1439, one of those inanely named “Second Amendment Preservation” bills.

As James and Slay point out, the bill basically calls on officials to abuse the constitutions of Missouri and the United States. They call it, appropriately, an “embarrassment to the state of Missouri.”

The mayors write that the bill “would make it illegal for our police officers and local prosecutors to work with federal agencies in efforts to reduce gun violence in our cities. State lawmakers would empower street thugs and highway snipers, authorizing them to file lawsuits and recover attorneys’ fees against police and prosecutors who work with federal authorities to keep our communities safe.”

This is an essential point to make: The recent arrest of a person in connection to the Kansas City area highway shootings was made possible by cooperation among all levels of law enforcement.

Here’s another point from Slay: “Last summer, the City partnered with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the U.S. Attorney to take 159 dangerous criminals and 267 guns off the streets of our City. If this bill had been in effect, ATF and the U.S. Attorney would have been committing a crime. That is ludicrous. “

Ludicrous, indeed.

James and Slay also have scheduled a press conference at 2:30 p.m. Monday at the state Capitol to discuss the measure’s deficiencies.

If Missouri lawmakers pass this bill, they are putting innocent lives at stake by protecting criminals who use guns.

The legislators also are kowtowing to the National Rifle Association instead of standing up for the people of Missouri.

Worst of all, they are saying that federal officials — paid for by the taxpayers of Missouri — can’t help solve a large number of crimes alongside local officials in the future.

It’s a shocking display of love for everything that has to do with guns, and nothing to do with common sense.