MO House Speaker Plocher shuts down lawmaker’s speech about North KC High School shooting
Missouri House Speaker Dean Plocher on Monday shut down a Democratic lawmaker’s speech about the weekend shooting at North Kansas City High School after the lawmaker began to talk about lax gun laws.
The dust up between Plocher, a St. Louis-area Republican, and Rep. Eric Woods, a Kansas City Democrat, comes as Missouri Republicans have largely refused to entertain calls for stricter gun laws in the wake of three high profile shootings in the Kansas City area over the last few weeks.
Plocher’s decision to cut off Wood’s speech drew swift condemnation from House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, a Springfield Democrat running for governor, who said in a letter to Plocher that his actions were “disgraceful, unacceptable and an embarrassment to yourself” and the Missouri House.
Woods on Monday had asked Plocher for “a point of personal privilege,” a motion that allows lawmakers to talk about issues that affect the House. The Democratic lawmaker then spoke about the Saturday shooting at the high school in his district, which injured two people.
“I was refreshing social media, calling, texting anyone I could possibly think of to try and see if I could figure out how many kids had been shot at my high school,” Woods said on the House floor.
“These things happen so frequently in this country that I had a moment where I thought ‘oh, only two to three people shot at my high school? That’s it? OK.’ But we can’t feel that way. We can’t become numb to things like this,” Woods said, also referencing last month’s shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl rally.
Woods then spoke about loose firearms regulations in the country and the country’s infatuation with guns, saying that the United States was the “the only place where we have such frequent explosions of gun violence.”
“We don’t think of guns in this country as weapons and tools, which they are. We give them a sort of sacred object status,” he said. “We treat them with almost a religious reverence that says that we’re not allowed to suggest that the amount of guns or lax laws contribute to violence. To do so is blasphemy.”
Plocher then slammed down his gavel and cut off Woods when he began to talk about how there are laws that lawmakers can enact to address gun violence.
“Gentleman,” Plocher said, “this is neither an introduction of special guests nor a point of personal privilege.”
“Mr. Speaker,” Woods pleaded.
But Plocher moved on, asking whether there were other lawmakers who wanted to speak. The top Republican lawmaker then quickly offered his own point of personal privilege to talk about the House doorman’s birthday.
Plocher addressed the situation on social media later on Tuesday, saying that “Points of personal privilege are not a time to make political speeches.”
“We were not debating gun rights but welcoming guests,” he said. “When it’s time to debate gun rights I’ll be ready when the liberals try to take away our guns while letting criminals go free.”
The incident marked the second time in several weeks that Plocher has shut down conversations about gun violence. On the morning after the shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl rally, Plocher repeatedly refused to answer questions from reporters about firearms and abruptly ended a news conference.
Woods, in an interview, said it seems like every week a lawmaker stands up on the House floor and talks about a shooting in their district. Plocher’s unwillingness to listen to his speech was an indictment of his party’s stance on gun control, he said.
“I felt pretty disrespected when I was trying to speak about some trauma that happened to my community,” he said. “And if there was a view that what I was saying was too political, that’s because this issue is political. And until we start talking about solutions, all we can do is make noise about it.”
Quade, in her scathing letter to Plocher on Tuesday, said that he shut down Woods’ speech with no justification.
“With your action, you not only treated a colleague with unwarranted disrespect, you showed utter contempt for the shooting victims and traumatized bystanders he was honoring,” Quade said.
Missouri Republicans, the letter said, were complicit in weakening the state’s gun laws and Woods’ speech was what they needed to hear.
“As speaker, it is your duty to preside over chamber proceedings fairly and in full accordance with House Rules,” the letter said. “If you find yourself unable to do so, then you should relinquish the gavel to someone who can.”
Plocher on Wednesday wrote a letter in response to Quade saying that he empathized with “the fear, frustration and anger of any parent whose children are harmed or put in danger by criminals.” However, he said the Democratic lawmaker made it political.
“As Rep. Woods’s statement was neither an introduction nor personal privilege, and I took appropriate action to continue session and commence with the business of the people of Missouri,” Plocher wrote, citing House rules on decorum.
Plocher in the letter also criticized Rep. Ashley Aune, a Kansas City Democrat, who called for stricter gun laws on the House floor after the Chiefs rally shooting. He said Woods’ speech “was not the first breach of decorum this session.”
Under Missouri House rules, any lawmaker can offer a point of personal privilege on matters that “collectively affect the House, its rights, its dignity, and the integrity of its proceedings or the rights, reputation, and conduct of its individual members in their respective capacities only.”
The rules state only that lawmakers may not use the motion to “debate any motion, bill, resolution, memorial, or other business pending before the House.”
This story was originally published March 5, 2024 at 2:54 PM.
