My thanks to those who have reached out to me to make sure that my husband & I are okay.
What started as a joyful event ended in great sadness and trauma for the community.

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"The shooting at Kansas City’s Union Station Wednesday was the metro area’s 25th mass shooting in the past five years, AND the second already in 2024. The January "mass" (unless 6 people shot doesn't qualify as enough for that status) shooting was across the street from Union Station at Crown Center https://pbase.com/britestar/image/174285991 Thankfully no one died in that one.

At least 39 injuries at the Super Bowl Celebration rally as reported by five local hospitals who treated patients in the aftermath of Wednesday’s shooting. Half of the shooting victims were under age 16, Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves said in a news conference Thursday. She added that the shooting victims range in age from 8 to 47. Another shooting about 30 minutes before the one at Union Station also injured two people near Crown Center, which is connected by a walkway to Union Station. Graves said that there is no evidence so far that the two incidents are related." Kansas City Star

The shootings stemmed from a “dispute between several people.” As of Thursday night, no charges had been announced and no suspects had been named. 'We are working to determine the involvement of others,' Police Chief Graves said at the news conference, also noting that several firearms were recovered & that police are working with the county prosecutor.

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"While police continued their investigation, a crowd gathered for a vigil Thursday evening at a plaza adjacent to Mercy Children’s hospital, where several of the children who were shot were hospitalized. Church leaders said prayers as people held candles that light up the dark, cold winter evening."

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Missouri needs to change their loose gun laws
(that are allowing things like this Super Bowl Rally mass shooting to happen more and more often)
But they won't.

In 2007, the law requiring a permit to buy a handgun in Missouri was repealed. After the permit law was repealed, there was an estimated 47.3% increase in firearm homicide, according to research from the American Journal of Public Health. No background check is required for Missouri residents to purchase a firearm and there is no ban on assault weapons, according to Missouri state law. The state legislature passed a law in 2021 that prohibited anyone in the state from enforcing federal laws that infringed upon the Second Amendment of the Constitution that grants citizens the right to bear arms.

Missouri GOP leaders dismiss calls for tougher gun laws after KC shooting.

Kansas City, Missouri sits on the border with Kansas. The U.S. senators from both states—Missouri’s Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt, and Kansas’ Dr. Roger Marshall and Jerry Moran were each endorsed by the National Rifle Association, which donated money to them. They voted against federal gun reform legislation in 2022 that Biden signed into law in the wake of the Uvalde school shooting. Schmitt, who as the state’s former Attorney General advocated for the state legislation to limit the enforcement of federal gun laws, was not in Congress when the 2022 law passed, but said in a post on X before the vote: 'Red flag laws are just a green light for gun confiscation. No way.' Marshall said in a statement after the 2022 vote that red flag laws “violate” the Second Amendment. Last year, he opposed the Biden Administration’s proposal to expand background checks, saying in a statement it would “strip law-abiding gun owners of their rights.”

"Missouri is known for having some of the laxest gun laws in the country. No permit is needed to buy a gun and the state allows for open carry. Back in 2021, Republicans approved the “Second Amendment Preservation Act,” known as SAPA. This law nullified any federal gun laws in the state and penalized any police departments that enforced those laws. Last year, the Missouri House voted down a provision that would have prohibited minors from carrying guns without supervision. All but one Republican voted against it." KTVI-TV St. Louis

Missouri's Governor Parson was at the Rally when the shooting took place and has afterwards said, “I don’t think you need stronger gun laws in this state. We will heal from this”. He went on to say: “I think people want to protect themselves with guns, for instance, just like yesterday.”

I don't understand this comment. Does that mean when the gunfire started - with a million people packed in tight at the Super Bowl Rally Wednesday - every "law abiding citizen" in the crowd should have all pulled out their own guns and also started to also shoot at whatever???

If EIGHT HUNDRED armed and fully trained members of law enforcement officers at the parade and rally couldn't keep the crowd safe from gun violence, what could one untrained, average citizen with a gun do except maybe accidently shoot more people in the crowd? Being trained to properly care for and use a gun is not a requirement in Missouri. Anyone, who wants to own and carry and make use of a gun, can. There virtually are no requirements to limit them. Shooting into a dense crowd is reckless: be the person with a gun a "good guy" or a "bad guy". So, what if a dozen private citizens, near the Union Station shooters, did all pull out guns too (as recommended by Republican law makers? What if these private citizens with guns then had started to shoot into the crowd to try to stop what was happening??? Would that have saved a life once the initial shooting had started or would more people (including the supposed "good guys" with more guns) instead have taken more lives? The fact that no more individuals with guns (even well meaning) joined in with the shootout probably saved lives. Trying to stop gun violence with more gun violence is not an answer.

State Sen. Bill Eigel, a Republican campaigning for governor, wrote on social media early Thursday with a warning to those he called “liberal gun grabbers” pushing for restrictions. “NOT IN MISSOURI,” he said. Even though 800 armed and trained police officers were deployed along the parade route and near the rally, Eigel suggested that a lack of guns was somehow responsible for the extent of the shooting. These police officers (with guns) responded to the situation immediately without using their guns. Eigel wrote: “One good guy with a gun could have stopped the evil criminals who opened fire on the crowd immediately. Guns don’t kill people." 800 police and other law enforcement officers on the scene had guns, but one woman is still dead from gun violence on Wednesday and 3 others may not live. With Parson's term almost up, Eigel's illogical logic is what Missouri can continue to look forward to; not gun reform that could save lives.

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Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas, a Democrat, has been a proponent for stricter laws to reduce gun violence.
But his hands are tied because of Missouri State gun laws.
Homicides in the Kansas City hit a record high in 2023, according to police data.

“I can tell you what: a victory parade will never be the same,” Rep. Maggie Nurrenbern, D-Kansas City, said Thursday.
“A public celebration will never be the same.”

I agree.