‘Something needs to change’: March for Our Lives rally in Kansas City calls for gun reform
Eight-year-old Cecilia Cox gripped a cardboard sign that said in bold “Ban assault weapons, Ban high capacity magazines,” as about 100 people gathered Saturday in Kansas City’s Gillham Park.
The protest was organized through the March for Our Lives campaign, which held rallies across the country in response to mass shootings that have killed dozens of people in recent weeks.
Cox’s long blonde hair and pink dress waved in the summer breeze. Her father, Brad Cox, said he had been struggling to explain the words “assault weapon” and “gunman” to his daughter since the May 24 mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and two teachers dead.
Below the Cox family on a grassy knoll stood at least 100 people, many wearing orange “End Gun Violence” shirts, who called for more restrictions on accessing high powered guns. Speakers including Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas and Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker encouraged protesters to pressure their elected representatives to pass stricter laws on background checks and waiting periods for potential gun buyers.
“The reason we have massacres is because guns are too damn easy to get,” said Mayor Lucas, who was brought on stage to rousing applause.
“For some reason in places like Missouri and Kansas we’re trying to let guns be everywhere. That part is wrong.”
Lucas referred to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data that showed firearms were the leading cause of death for young people in 2020. That year, Kansas City experienced a record 182 homicides. Most of the killings involved gun violence, which disproportionately impacts areas with high poverty and a history of housing discrimination.
Lucas stood on stage beside City Councilwoman Ryana Parks-Shaw in calling on elected representatives, such as U.S. Senators Roy Blunt and Jerry Moran, to support gun reform. He called Sen. Josh Hawley a “lost cause.”
Shortly after, Parks-Shaw led the crowd in chants of “Protect people, not guns.”
Baker called attention to the fact Saturday’s crowd was predominantly white and victims of gun violence in Kansas City are largely young, Black men. She encouraged the protesters to stand up for community members disproportionately bearing the burden of gun violence and to keep using their voices to demand change.
Around 2 p.m. the park smelled of sunscreen and sweat as people huddled under trees for shade. Two teachers, Tara Rogers and Danielle Christian, held handcrafted signs.
Christian, a local special education teacher, said she grew up in a family that owned guns and advocated for the right to bear arms. She still believes in that right, but since working as a teacher she’s become an advocate for gun restrictions.
In the past five months, she’s done about three active shooter drills with students from third to fifth grade.
“We turn off the lights, roll down the blinds and hide the kids into far corners and we have golf balls that we’re supposed to throw at the (shooter),” she said.
“But I had a student that’s in a wheelchair, so she can’t go hide where she’s supposed to hide, she can’t run. I had another student in the same class who is not mentally his age and he doesn’t understand how to be quiet. They don’t understand what’s happening,” she said.
Rodgers, who teaches at Christ Lutheran School in Overland Park, said she does active shooter drills once a month and often struggles to get the 2-year-olds into a closet because they’re afraid of the dark.
“We try to explain it like bad guys and good guys in movies,” she said through tears. “We tell them sometimes bad guys come and try to hurt people, just like when Batman has to face bad guys. But they still don’t understand why anyone would want to hurt them.
“Something needs to change.”
