Kansas City Mayor: We Can’t Be ‘Fully’ Safe if People ‘Are Freely Walking Around’ with ‘Even Just’ a ‘Classic Revolver’

On Thursday’s broadcast of NPR’s “All Things Considered,” Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas (D) said that if you don’t have metal detectors, “then how can we ever fully be safe in a city, a state, and, perhaps, a country where we know that people are freely walking around with AR-15s, with modified handguns with switches, with any number of issues, or frankly, even just your old classic revolver?” And “If we know that one can act with impunity with that, then it’s hard to say we’ll ever be fully as safe as I think we’d like to idealize ourselves to be.”

Co-host Juana Summers asked, [relevant exchange begins around 4:30] “Kansas City is a city that loves its celebrations. And I know that there is a big St. Patrick’s Day parade scheduled in your city for next month. Are you, at this point, thinking differently about public celebrations in light of this, the types of precautions that might need to be taken? You pointed out more than 800 officers were on the streets, and yet, this still happened.”

Lucas responded, “This is probably the hardest part of all for any of us who go to parades with our children, our loved ones, or friends, because I think we’re starting to realize a challenge to everything we can do to keep ourselves safe. We can have more officers, and we will. We can have cameras and everything possible. But it is hard to fully protect ourselves if we’re in a public space. If there is not a metal detector walking in, if there is not the sort of thing, frankly, that a parade just doesn’t allow, then how can we ever fully be safe in a city, a state, and, perhaps, a country where we know that people are freely walking around with AR-15s, with modified handguns with switches, with any number of issues, or frankly, even just your old classic revolver? If we know that one can act with impunity with that, then it’s hard to say we’ll ever be fully as safe as I think we’d like to idealize ourselves to be.”

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