‘Enough is enough’: In wake of Chiefs rally mass shooting, groups advocate for gun laws

Three days earlier, it had been sunny.

An uncommonly warm February day seemingly foretold an equally warm celebration for the hometown team. Chiefs Kingdom came out en masse to celebrate their Super Bowl win — together — a victory for the city.

Three days earlier, chilling gusts of wind didn’t pierce the skin, as they would just a few days later. But on Saturday, Samuel Kim shivered as he spoke in below-freezing temperatures. A couple pieces of red and yellow confetti were stuck to the frosted grass.

“This city is a people… and when one of us suffers, I know it hurts everybody,” said Kim, a University of Missouri - Kansas City student representing Students Demand Action.

Three days after a mass shooting at the Chiefs rally took one life and injured at least 39 others, 23 with gunshot wounds, advocacy groups took to Washington Square Park to mourn and rally for gun violence prevention.

‘It shouldn’t be that way’

A block away from a memorial that reads “KC Strong, KC United” in Union Station, advocacy group Moms Demand Action organized the rally with lawmakers, group volunteers and Mayor Quinton Lucas, who all spoke on gun violence prevention.

Some, including Lucas, shared personal stories of when the Chiefs Super Bowl victory rally ended in screams and chaos. He urged lawmakers to take action following the deadly shooting.

“We never thought about the fact that by the end of the afternoon, we’d be running, and running for our lives,” Lucas said. “My friends, it doesn’t have to be this way.”

Lucas talked about the days after the shooting, when he visited the family of Lisa Lopez-Galvan, a mother and popular disc jockey who died on the grounds of Union Station after she was shot. He visited a high school the next day, he said, observing all the ways schools prepare for shootings.

“As I talked to those students, they didn’t shrug. They were concerned, they were heartbroken, some of them were here, but they said, ‘This is just the way of life,’” Lucas said.

“It shouldn’t be that way.”

As the group listened to Lucas and other lawmakers, they held picket signs that read, “Inaction costs lives” and “Protect kids not guns,” among other phrases. Donning stocking hats and winter coats, people chanted “enough is enough,” and asked what could have been done to prevent the bloodshed.

Advocating for change

The group advocated for laws that would enforce universal background checks, require people to report when their gun is stolen, mandate safe storage laws, and require permits to conceal carry in Missouri.

One champion of this platform was Missouri 14th District Rep. Ashley Aune.

“I believe that we can protect the second amendment and we can keep our families safe,” Aune said. “We have the freedom to be in our communities without the fear of gun violence — or we should — but we don’t right now.”

Aune discussed Republican lawmakers’ move to quickly quash gun reform talk in the wake of the mass shooting, and vowed to talk with voters about the nuances of the issue.

Soon after the shooting, it was discovered that at least nine children sustained gunshot wounds and were admitted to Children’s Mercy Hospital for treatment. Even as the last of those children had recovered enough to be discharged by Saturday, a large focus of the rally was on children.

Jackson County legislator Manny Abarca brought his daughter to the rally, who was celebrating her birthday. She was too shy to take the microphone, though Abarca gave her the opportunity.

The group sang “Happy Birthday” to her as she kneeled on the ground by her dad.

Like Aune, Abarca said he supports stronger gun laws in Missouri, appealing to a personal story from the day of the shooting.

When the gunshots broke out, he ran for cover amid the chaos. His daughter was with him. When they got to a safe area, his daughter asked him a question.

“Daddy, this is a drill, right?” she asked.

All he could think to say — in spite of the tumult and terror surrounding them — was, “Yes, sweetheart, it’s a drill.”

But now, days later, he and others saddened after this victory turned to violence hope Saturday’s weather foreshadows something new — that the winds of change are coming.