Could Missouri overhaul ‘stand your ground’ law after Chiefs rally shooting plea deals?
When Republican lawmakers in 2016 sidestepped Missouri’s Democratic governor and enacted a sweeping firearms law, the move solidified the state as a gun rights haven.
A decade later, that law, often called “stand your ground,” has gained new notoriety and deepened longstanding fractures in the Missouri Capitol over the state’s firearms protections, among the loosest in the nation.
Jackson County Prosecutor Melesa Johnson recently cited the law as justification for her decision to drop murder charges against two individuals involved in the 2024 mass shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl victory rally that killed one person and injured more than 20 others.
Johnson pointed directly at Missouri’s robust self-defense law, which offers individuals broad discretion to use deadly force when they believe they are about to be attacked. Johnson said the law restricted her ability to prosecute the case, forcing her to strike plea deals with two of three individuals charged with murder after the shooting.
“This case, like many others, highlights the significant restrictions that Missouri’s self-defense and defense-of-others laws place on our ability to prosecute conduct that many in our community would deem unacceptable,” Johnson said last month.
The plea deals marked an anticlimactic ending to the nationally publicized shooting that upended Kansas City. In the wake of the decision, The Star spoke with lawmakers of both parties about whether there was any appetite for changes to the state’s self-defense law within the Missouri Capitol.
What emerged from those interviews was a portrait of the state’s yearslong fight over guns, which has fallen along party lines. Democrats criticized the law as too broad and called for changes, while Republicans, who control both chambers of the General Assembly, largely pushed back against those arguments.
But, as Kansas City prepares to host World Cup matches this summer, potentially drawing thousands of international fans, Johnson’s argument appeared to ignite at least a small desire for change in Jefferson City.
Most Republicans who spoke with The Star sharply rejected calls to make tweaks to the self-defense law. However, the top Republican in the Missouri House appeared open to a discussion.
House Speaker Jonathan Patterson, a Lee’s Summit Republican, said he recently met with Johnson to discuss the self-defense law, calling the prosecutor “very professional to work with.”
“We’re working on looking at language to see if there are any changes that need to be made,” said Patterson, who is running for state Senate. “If there are laws that need to be changed, I would be the first to sponsor it and really push it.”
He said he would like to meet with the Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys to discuss ways to make it easier for prosecutors to handle “these types of crimes.”
Patterson’s comments came at the tail-end of Missouri’s annual legislative session and the twilight of his term as speaker. Any changes to the self-defense law would have to come when lawmakers return to Jefferson City next year and with a new speaker in charge of the House.
In response, House Minority Leader Ashley Aune, a Kansas City Democrat, called Patterson’s comments “empty words.”
“I do appreciate that,” she added. “I certainly hope that my Republican colleagues, when we come back into the building next year, do have an eye on this situation and are willing to work with our prosecutors to solve the problem.”
When asked about the likelihood of that happening, Aune was frank: “Slim to none.”
Republicans beat back changes
Patterson’s comments aren’t how Republicans usually talk about gun laws.
Missouri lawmakers have for years quickly moved to beat back talk of changes to the state’s firearm protections. In the wake of the Chiefs rally shooting, Republicans quashed any Democratic attempt to enact stricter regulations, including then-House Speaker Dean Plocher, who told reporters, “We’re not going to dwell on Kansas City today,” a day after the shooting.
That rhetoric largely continued in the wake of the plea deals for two of the individuals involved in the shooting.
Senate Majority Leader Tony Luetkemeyer, a Parkville Republican, flatly told The Star that there was no room for tweaks to the self-defense law. The top lawmaker called Johnson’s argument “a cop-out,” suggesting her decision to strike plea deals with the shooters would encourage others to commit violent crimes in Kansas City.
“The shooters created the dangerous situation by firing into a crowded public rally,” said Luetkemeyer, who is running for Platte County prosecutor. “That conduct is not shielded by a self-defense claim.”
Luetkemeyer’s comments came just days after Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe also pushed back against Johnson’s argument in an interview with The Star.
“I hate to always question a prosecutor, but that seems like it’s a stretch to me,” Kehoe said. “I hope that’s not a political statement more than it is reality.”
Rep. Lane Roberts, a Joplin Republican, was diplomatic about Johnson’s decision, but also questioned whether the state’s self-defense law applied to the Chiefs rally shooting. He suggested the decision could have been political.
“I’ll tell you what it feels like — it kind of feels like ‘in your face,’ somebody who’s maybe a bit more liberal minded telling the more conservative mind ‘see what you did,’” said Roberts, a former police chief and director of the Missouri Department of Public Safety.
“I don’t like it very much,” he said. “But, in fairness to the prosecutor, I have not read her reasoning.”
Missouri’s self-defense law
In Missouri, guns are both ubiquitous and fiercely defended. The self-defense law was built upon years of similar gun rights legislation.
“We’re very sensitive to protecting the Second Amendment,” said Roberts.
“(Gun restrictions are) an easy road to head down and you may wind up in the wrong destination,” he added. “Our rights are exactly that. There are absolutes in our Constitution. That’s what the Bill of Rights are about.”
State law allows 19-year-olds to carry concealed weapons without a permit and lawmakers have severely restrained cities and counties from setting their own regulations. The state also does not have a minimum age requirement to possess a firearm, a law that gun control advocates have criticized for allowing minors to carry guns.
But Johnson and other local officials, such as Mayor Quinton Lucas, have placed a major focus on the self-defense law.
The 2016 law, which lawmakers enacted over the veto of then-Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon, allows individuals to use physical force against another person if they “reasonably believe” that force will defend themselves. The law also states that individuals do not have “a duty to retreat,” from such force.
Documents obtained by The Star suggest that Johnson’s office would like to see a provision in the law changed that allows individuals to use deadly force against a person who is engaged in “any forcible felony.”
U.S. Rep. Eric Burlison, a Republican who helped pass the self-defense law when he served in the General Assembly, broadly condemned the idea that the law should “excuse reckless criminal violence.”
“Protecting the right of self-defense for innocent Missourians and prosecuting violent criminals are not mutually exclusive,” he said.
Democrats who spoke with The Star, including two who were outside Union Station during the 2024 shooting, said they were disappointed by the charging decision but deferred to Johnson’s expertise. Most lamented the state’s lax gun laws.
“It’s really unfortunate that we’re in a situation now, because of how broad our gun laws are in this state, that this tragedy can happen and we’re not able to hold folks accountable,” said Sen. Steven Roberts, a St. Louis Democrat who was present during the shooting.
Meanwhile, Rep. Aaron Crossley, an Independence Democrat who was also at the rally, said he enjoys visiting downtown Kansas City. But, in the wake of the shooting, he said he’s had to think twice before heading downtown.
The shooting and the lack of legislative action afterwards affirmed what he had already believed about the state’s gun laws — that “we aren’t doing what’s right,” he said.
“When I had to text my kids who were watching the parade live to let them know that I was OK, even as I was escaping out the back door and didn’t know if I was OK,” he said. “I think we just have to ask ourselves, ‘what are we doing?’”
This story was originally published May 7, 2026 at 10:53 AM.
