Op-Ed: The True Culprits of Missouri's Urban Crime
Missouri, as well as 42 other states across the country, have statutes preempting local firearm legislation
Kansas City Union Station
By: Jasir Rahman
On Valentine’s Day, a shooting in Kansas City’s Union Station killed one, injured many others, and struck fear in the hearts of the city. The first Twitter response to the violence I saw said, “Always the Democrat run cities.”
With the general election of 2024 fast approaching, Republicans are once again weaponizing the issue of violent crime to their benefit. Just three weeks ago, Missouri Senator Roger Marshall pushed such rhetoric, tweeting that “Democrats’ soft-on-crime policies have been catastrophic.” Republicans have championed themselves as being “The party of law and order,” and organizations like the Heritage Foundation declared there was a “Blue City Murder Problem.”
Conservatives often point to cities like St. Louis and Kansas City, citing the Democratic leadership as the problem. So what exactly are urban Democrats doing about armed crime in the city? Not a thing. Why?
Because the Republican legislature said they can’t.
Last summer, I attended the National Safer Communities Summit, hosted by Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, to commemorate the passage of the landmark Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which cracked down on domestic abusers and illegal gun dealers to improve community safety.
In attendance was Mayor Quinton Lucas of Kansas City, the only panelist of the day from a red state. In the preface to his first response, Mayor Lucas addressed the most significant barrier to action against firearm crime in Kansas City — state firearm preemption laws.
Missouri, as well as 42 other states across the country, have statutes preempting local firearm legislation. That is, city and county governments must follow state gun laws, they can’t pursue their own.
Missouri law preempts “the entire field of legislation touching in any way firearms, components, ammunition and supplies to the complete exclusion of any order, ordinance or regulation by any political subdivision of this state.” This poses a considerable barrier for city officials trying to fight violent crime.
After listening to Mayor Lucas speak, I approached him and asked how he navigated the preemption laws to reduce crime. He said, “Well, we’re fighting with two hands tied behind our back, but we’re still fighting.”
Team ENOUGH members at the Bipartisan Safer Communities Summit, June, 2023 (Courtesy of Brady United Against Gun Violence)
Missouri has among the weakest firearm regulations in the country. The state does not require background checks or permits to purchase firearms, and does not require permits for concealed carry. Worse, the state has only moved to be less strict on firearms, as in 2021 when the state passed the “Second Amendment Preservation Act,” which attempted to limit the ability of local officials to enforce federal firearms laws before being struck down as unconstitutional.
This increasingly extreme view on firearms represents a grave threat to the state, which faces the 10th highest gun death rate in the nation.
But remind me again who is soft on crime? The people fighting to keep firearms out of the hands of criminals or those who are arming them?
Missouri Republicans in the legislature are disarming local governments by removing the tools they have to fight violent crime in their cities, and then are politically profiting off of the pain that they are causing.
In an NBC poll from September of last year, 50% of respondents reported that they trusted Republicans to combat crime, while just 20% said they trusted Democrats. And now, Republicans in the Missouri legislature are using this rhetoric to claim control of the St. Louis Police Department.
Do not let them. Do not let them parade around with homicide statistics and claim it is the fault of the Police Department or Democrats who are soft on crime. This is a problem of their own making. Do not let them claim to be the firefighters. In reality, they are the arsonists.
Taking over the St. Louis Police Department will only spread state resources thin and will not solve the problem. Crime is down in St. Louis due to increasing violence prevention efforts by the city, but the city is still lacking its most important tool at its disposal: firearm regulation.
Gun violence measures could be on the Missouri ballot in 2024 — including a measure that would end preemption — but they must receive 171,592 signatures to be put to a vote.
Sign the petition here. Allow the voters to choose for themselves.
Jasir Rahman is a Junior at Rice University in Houston, TX, and a member of Team ENOUGH, Brady United Against Gun Violence’s youth organization.
Image of Kansas City Union Station/skyline by 12019 from Pixabay
Great piece!!! So true. I would just like to make one correction. It’s not that Missourians don’t have to go thru a background check to purchase. The feds require it of all FFL gun stores. The issue is that Missouri does not require UNIVERSAL background checks to cover private sales.