Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas expressed doubts about full safety at public celebrations like parades in light of recent shootings.
When asked about precautions for an upcoming St. Patrick’s Day parade, Lucas said it is difficult to protect people in open public spaces without security measures like metal detectors that parades do not allow.
Host Juana Summers said, “Kansas City is a city that loves its celebrations. And I know that there is a big St. Patrick’s Day parade scheduled in your city for next month.”
“Are you, at this point, thinking differently about public celebrations in light of this, the types of precautions that might need to be taken? You pointed out more than 800 officers were on the streets, and yet, this still happened.” she continued.
Mayor Lucas replied, “This is probably the hardest part of all for any of us who go to parades with our children, our loved ones, or friends, because I think we’re starting to realize a challenge to everything we can do to keep ourselves safe.”
He argued that as long as individuals can freely walk around with various types of firearms, from AR-15s to handguns, and act with impunity, it will be hard to achieve the level of safety that is idealized for events where screening is not possible.
“We can have more officers, and we will. We can have cameras and everything possible. But it is hard to fully protect ourselves if we’re in a public space,” he explained.
“If there is not a metal detector walking in, if there is not the sort of thing, frankly, that a parade just doesn’t allow, then how can we ever fully be safe in a city, a state, and, perhaps, a country where we know that people are freely walking around with AR-15s, with modified handguns with switches, with any number of issues, or frankly, even just your old classic revolver?” continued Lucas.
He added, “If we know that one can act with impunity with that, then it’s hard to say we’ll ever be fully as safe as I think we’d like to idealize ourselves to be.”
Lucas suggested current laws and accessibility of weapons undermine efforts to secure even heavily policed celebrations and cities cannot be made fully safe without addressing firearm proliferation and accountability.
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