Not sure if this one slid under the radar or we just missed it, but back in late February, mere weeks after a high-profile shooting during the Super Bowl celebration parade for the Kansas City Chiefs, the Missouri House of Representatives passed a law banning celebratory gunfire into the sky in city limits.
And while we’ve all seen people on television fire guns into the city sky to celebrate or heard it ourselves, it doesn’t take but half a brain to understand what goes up, must come down and those bullets can come down causing damage, injury or even death.
Lawmakers interviewed by First Alert 4 News in Kansas City, cited the recent parade shooting, which was NOT the result of celebratory gunfire, as impetus for the passage of the law. The parade shooting was the result of an argument between armed thugs, possibly gang members, that escalated into random bullets being fired at each party and innocent people being struck, one killed, in the melee.
Neither political side could resist citing the incident as part of their theater prior to the vote in the House.
From 4 News:
Kansas City Democratic Rep. Patty Lewis spoke through tears as she described hiding in an alcove to avoid being trampled.
“What made me most sad was fear that nothing was going to happen,” Lewis said, referencing state gun laws. “I’ve seen it happen over and over.”
Republican Rep. Ben Baker spoke against reacting emotionally to the shooting as Democrats shouted at him from across the House floor.
“There’s always a call for stricter gun laws. It’s the almost immediate reaction by many in this body when something happens like this,” Baker said. “But the fact is, no law that we could pass in this body would have prevented the terrible tragedy that happened last week.”
The body then voted 120-26 in a rare show of bipartisan support for a gun law in the state.
Despite invoking the parade shooting, which was fresh in the public’s mind at the time, as a call to action on celebratory gunfire, the measure had roots in another real tragedy.
The measure was called Blair’s Law, after 11-year-old Blair Shanahan Lane, who was dancing in her uncle’s yard with a sparkler on July 4, 2011, when a stray bullet someone had fired into the air in suburban Kansas City struck her in the neck, killing her.
Fifty-year-old Aaron Sullivan later pled guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the case after admitting that he and three friends had fired dozens of “celebratory shots from a pistol” outside an apartment complex near Riss Lake in Kansas City. At the time, Lane was in her uncle’s yard, which was across the lake and two rows of trees from where the men were firing the handgun.
According to an Associated Press article, it was unclear which of the men actually fired the deadly shot, but Sullivan owned the gun, so was the one charged. The other men were not charged in the crime.
Shooting firearms into the air is always a terrible idea. In fact, it’s just plain stupid and is certainly a serious breach of one of the main tenets of firearms safety: know your target and what lies beyond it before ever pulling the trigger.
Gun owners shouldn’t need a law to understand that, but this is where our society has wound up. Always think before pulling a firearm out and firing, whether at the range or in the field, and even, in a dangerous situation. You are always responsible for the bullets you fire. You can never take them back once sent downrange…or into the air.
Waste of a perfectly good bullet. Why even do this. Ive never gotten so excited as to go pop a few off in the front yard.
Its a shame about the little girl hit in the neck. would be interested in the caliber and the distance away, and the angle etc of the bullet that “went over the lake and across 2 rows of trees. Just for curiosity’s sake.
So we can assume that the superbowl parade thugs were only charged with a petty misdemeanor of disturbing the peace ? The inmates are not just running the asylum anymore, they’re obviously also dictating to the lawmakers.
It wasn’t gang violence. It was a factional dispute among different groups of community organizers.
“It was a factional dispute among different groups of community organizers.”
A simple ‘business dispute’ between competitors over ‘turf’…
It took them 13 years to respond to the child’s death?
I think they didn’t know who did it until the fella fessed up. Mighta took that long dunno
I’m with you, Jim! This is a real head-scratcher. I mean, the guy plead guilty all the way back in 2011, so the cause of Blair’s death was already known for the last 13 years. What took them so long to address that – really! That said, this very specific legislation could likely be covered under blanket legislation since most urban areas already have laws on the books governing the discharge of firearms outdoors (hopefully with the exceptions of use in self-defense and on the grounds of a licensed shooting range). Why pass a law just specifically about celebratory fire? We’re going to have so many detailed laws on the books, nobody will know what the law is…except maybe the AI chatbots.
It’s difficult to say who is worse, the perp who celebrates shooting the moon and striking a child or the sleazy law makers who habitually use such tragedies on the behalf of Gun Control…Oh dear satanic Gun Control ungodly agenda Rooted in Racism and Genocide we democRats bow to lay another slice of the Second Amendment at your feet…
Attaboy, Chip! My Representative in Congress.
He really is one of the good ones. My RINO in Colorado has pussied out. Hopefully Douglas County gets it right.
“It’s difficult to say who is worse,…”
Worse is the endless posting of the same exact crap over, and over, and over again…
“Shooting firearms into the air is always a terrible idea.” This is the Obiden approved castle technique though.
Yes, celebratory is stupid, but that doesn’t mean that a law outlawing the practice is a bad idea. Plenty of people do stupid, and there is no reason that they shouldn’t be punished for stupid, and maybe the rest of the idiots out there will get a clue.
I once had a neighbor do this on New Years. The police came by and told old man Charlie that if he did it again they’d take his gun away. He smartened up real quick.
I just want to buy that 3 1/2″ model 27.
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A kid who went to my church was struck by a pos firing into the air. Hit on top of his head. He died. Hammond ,Indiana several years ago. And right now fafnir the dragon is swallowing the sun🙄
former, condolences to the family of the victim and the members of your congregation. Firing indiscriminately into the air falls squarely into the category of “stupid shit to do.” Last time my parents had a new roof the contractor handed Dad what I recognized as a .38 158 gr round nose lead. When I had a new roof done a few years back the contractor handed me what I recognized as a .40 caliber 180 gr FMJFP. Thanks to the asshole for the leak. I usually discharge firearms on the 4th of July. On private land and into a backstop. You want to make noise with a firearm and can afford it? Go ahead. Shoot into the dirt, not the sky and don’t be a nuisance.
Thats what blanks are for if you really need to shoot into the air . I have them in most calibers for my firearms
I like ‘Bird Bangs’ for my shotgun :
I was shooting my gunm in the sky on news years eve and my neighbor jumped my shit. I said it’s okay, I’ve got it pointed at the Cherokee Nations.
You can’t fix stupid. Nor can you fix hoplophobe Leftist DEMONcRATS.
Even experienced shooters fail to appreciate the laws of physics. Years ago, an Army competition shooter argued with me that air resistance slows a falling air-shot bullet so much that you could catch it in your hand without injury. I asked him if he would be willing to catch in his hand a half-inch nut falling from the Empire State building. For some reason he could relate to that example while the bullet didn’t register.
“What made me most sad was fear that nothing was going to happen,” Lewis said, referencing state gun laws. “I’ve seen it happen over and over.”
No, you moron. You’ve seen it NOT happen over and over.