‘We live it’: In Kansas City, local leaders suggest answers to gun violence problem
After a bloody week in Kansas City that left six people dead, a public conversation turned to ideas for stopping the violence, or at least slowing it down.
Mayor Quinton Lucas suggested implementing a gun buyback program. First Friday officials have discussed closing their popular outdoor arts events earlier in the evening.
Other community leaders said systemic problems, such as a lack of economic development in distressed areas, need to be confronted.
Some noted that the vast majority of the killing is carried out with guns.
“We have a problem with guns being in the hands of the wrong folks,” Lucas said Monday. “We have a problem with folks not caring about human life and that is something that I want to address and change.”
Six people were killed within a week in Kansas City as the number of homicides continued on pace to top those of 2018, when 143 people were slain in the city, according to data kept by The Star, which includes fatal police shootings.
Among the most public of the recent shootings was that of 25-year-old Erin Langhofer, an Overland Park woman who was hit by a stray bullet and killed while attending First Friday activities in the Crossroads Arts District. Police officials described Langhofer as an innocent bystander.
Deon’te Copkney, 18, has been charged with second-degree murder. He allegedly told detectives he fired after he was attacked by someone else, and didn’t intend to hurt anyone, according to charging documents.
The killing brought public outcry and a news conference by top law enforcement and city officials.
Lucas said he understood the frustration of people who said there had been more attention brought to Langhofer’s death than the city’s other recent homicides.
But he said the more important discussion was about preventing more killings.
During an interview with The Star, Lucas said he was aware of a gun buyback program in 1994 by then-Mayor Emanuel Cleaver that netted 1,900 firearms in exchange for cash payments.
“I know there a lot of people who don’t consider that a success but frankly, if you told me right now that I could get 2,000 guns off the streets of Kansas City then I would take that,” Lucas said.
While buyback programs are popular, critics say they often bring in older weapons sitting around someone’s home, as opposed to guns likely to be used in crimes. There is not much evidence that buyback programs are a major solution to gun violence, said Michael Scott, a clinical professor at Arizona State University and director of the Center for Problem-Oriented Policing.
“In a society in which firearms are so plentiful and so readily available, getting enough firearms so-called ‘off the street’ is extraordinarily difficult, both politically and logistically to do,” Scott said.
But a buyback program can be beneficial to help prevent suicides or accidental shootings, he said.
One question to ponder, Lucas said, was whether to implement a sliding scale instead of a flat fee, distinguishing between inoperable firearms and guns that still work.
Another was what to do about people who turn in firearms that may have been used in a crime, he said.
“All fair questions and all things I think we can work out,” Lucas said. ”That doesn’t mean that I am going to go out tomorrow and start giving people $1,000 for a gun without actually doing any research.”
Lucas has said he wants to invest in more police detectives and offer more help to people who suffer from mental health problems and trauma, letting young people know they can have a future that does not involve picking up a weapon.
Lucas said he believes the answer to solving the city’s persistent gun violence problem can be found locally. Waiting for lawmakers in Jefferson City or Washington D. C. to come up with solutions won’t work, he said. “Ain’t going to happen.”
As people in Kansas City took in the news of mass shootings this weekend in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, that left 31 people dead, the gunfire unleashed at the crowded First Friday event remained in the minds of many.
While there was a high concentration of security guards and police officers working throughout the Crossroads District that night, their presence did not prevent the shooting.
Jeff Owens, vice president of Crossroads Community Association, said the organization is holding meetings to decide what security measures should be implemented at First Fridays.
He said they are considering imposing a curfew for those under the age of 18 and ending the event earlier in the night.
Lucas said he plans to attend First Friday in September and would likely remain there throughout the evening.
Adding booths and more vendors in empty parking lot spaces, he suggested, could create more activity and prevent large crowds from gathering in a central location, which he said could lead to fights.
‘Every day’
Vernon Howard, senior pastor at St. Mark Union Church and president of Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Kansas City, called mass shootings a “cultural and spiritual sickness.”
Mass killings, however, represent a small portion of overall homicides. Shootings in ones and twos across the city take their toll every day, adding up to more than 100 most years in Kansas City.
“We live it on an ongoing basis, every day,” Howard said.
He pointed to political factors such as the Missouri legislature’s rejection of Medicaid expansion, which would increase access to mental health services, and “the oppressive and callous” policies backed by the National Rifle Association, which frequently lobbies against restrictions on guns.
The NRA said in a tweet that it “welcomes the President’s call to address the root causes of the horrific acts of violence that have occurred in our country.”
Earlier Monday, President Donald Trump said mental health and hatred pull the trigger, not guns.
To address problems in Kansas City, Howard called for an equitable economic development plan targeting the urban core and distressed parts of the city.
That was a sentiment echoed by Johnny Waller, director of community relationships for Choose Your Passion KC, a community development organization.
“A lot of areas in Kansas City are being rebuilt, money is being sucked into them,” Waller said. “But still on our side of town, there’s a lack of economic development.”
Waller, a former gang member who has been incarcerated, said violence has become accepted and normalized.
“Violence has become a culture,” he said. “It’s not you’re fighting just one person, one block or one group. It’s become a culture and until we start to address the cultural issues and start putting out some messaging, then people continue to think that this is OK.”
When someone is in an environment with limited choices, they are going to take what is available, he said.
People need different options to make better choices, he said, and that means improving economic opportunities, education and housing.
Waller and Howard also emphasized partnerships promoting nonviolence training and conflict resolution.
“It’s really about becoming a unified city and then attacking some of these systematic issues that we have in Kansas City,” Waller said. “Because if we don’t, then the killings are just going to continue.”
This story was originally published August 6, 2019 at 5:00 AM.
