JEFFERSON CITY - Missouri Gov. Mike Parson on Thursday blamed “a bunch of criminals, thugs” for the shooting in Kansas City that killed at least one and injured 22 after the Chiefs Super Bowl victory parade the previous day, making no mention of the state’s gun laws, among the loosest regulations for firearms in the country.
“What happened yesterday with those thugs is not who we are in Missouri,” Parson, a Republican, said in an interview with host Pete Mundo on KCMO Talk Radio. “And we’re not and it’s just a shame they got center stage yesterday under an event that should have been a totally positive event.”
The comments from Parson, who was at the parade on Wednesday, come as local officials, Chiefs players and Kansas Citians who were at the parade have called for the state to reexamine its lax approach to gun regulations. Parson, during the interview, did not use the word “gun.”
“You just got some absolutely, be careful what I say before I say something I’m gonna probably regret, but just a bunch of criminals, thugs out there, just killing people at an incident like that and attempting to kill all those people and created such chaos that people got hurt, being trampled,” Parson said. “I hope that prosecutors and judges and everybody understands how serious this is.”
While Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves has said three people had been detained and were being questioned, police are still investigating the motive and have not released information about the shooters.
The Republican-controlled Missouri General Assembly has for years steadily relaxed gun restrictions across the state. The state ranks 38th in the country in terms of gun law strength, according to Everytown For Gun Safety, an organization that advocates for restrictions on firearms.
Parson in 2021 signed a state law that declared certain federal gun laws “invalid” if they don’t have a state-level equivalent. That law, which faced objections from local police officers, is currently held up in court. Missouri law also bans cities such as Kansas City from enacting stricter gun regulations.
Some GOP lawmakers this year are seeking to further relax firearm laws, pushing legislation to allow people with concealed carry permits to bring guns onto public transit and inside churches and other places of worship.
Parson was initially scheduled to hold a press conference in Jefferson City on Thursday afternoon about sending Missouri resources or personnel to the southern border with Mexico. His office called off that press conference on Thursday morning.
“Our hearts, our prayers, which doesn’t seem like enough, but it’s all we got to offer right now is for those kids and for those people that’s in that hospital and everybody that had to go through that yesterday,” Parson said in the interview.
