To address KC violence, City Council adopts rules to keep minors from getting guns
Kansas City Council members voted overwhelmingly Thursday in favor of two ordinances offered by Mayor Quinton Lucas in the hopes of keeping guns out of the hands of minors.
One ordinance draws on federal law to make it a local offense for minors to have handguns. The other, citing state law, prohibits adults from recklessly giving minors guns without parental permission.
Lucas, who took office in August following one term on the City Council, said the ordinances were among his proudest accomplishments as a public official.
“I think what we’re doing today is instead of kind of waving a white flag and saying, ‘We can’t do anything,’ today we said, ‘We can,”” Lucas said.
In his campaign, Lucas pledged to lower the crime rate, including the high number of homicides, a problem that has plagued the city and befuddled politicians for decades.
The idea behind the ordinances, he said, is to give police tools to seize firearms from minors and enter the youths into diversion programs. Lucas’ general counsel, Jane Pansing Brown, noted Wednesday that there is a federal law barring minors from possessing handguns, but she said it’s rarely enforced by federal prosecutors.
Lucas’ ordinances were widely supported by the City Council, but Councilman Brandon Ellington, 3rd District at-large, raised some questions. He argued that the measures unnecessarily duplicated existing state and federal law and that most homicides do not involve minors.
Ellington offered an amendment that would require gun owners to report within 72 hours if their gun goes missing or is stolen and argued that would be more effective in reducing violence. He said guns that are used in crimes are sometimes never reported as stolen by their rightful owners.
“A lot of those firearms are resold on the black market, and this would take the ability away from someone to blindly have no type of legal responsibility,” Ellington said.
But other council members said they wanted to consider Ellington’s proposal as a standalone ordinance so they could assess whether it was permissible under state law. Cities in Missouri are preempted by state law from making many of their own rules regarding guns.
Ellington’s amendment was voted down, and both ordinances passed 11-0-1 with Ellington abstaining and Councilwoman Katheryn Shields, 4th District at-large, absent.
Ellington introduced his proposal as a separate ordinance for committee discussion.
Lucas said it was a good proposal and that the city needs to make sure it can lawfully enact such an ordinance.
“I think any tool that we can within our full lawful powers is a good one, so I look forward to reviewing that ordinance,” Lucas said.
