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Why Kansas City's mass shooting was shockingly ordinary

The shooting at Kansas City's Super Bowl rally last month was alarming, but sadly the kind of thing that happens with some regularity. One cause is Missouri's lax restrictions on firearms. Plus: It’s illegal to fight roosters in the U.S., but raising game fowl is a big business.

This time a month ago, Kansas City was still coming to grips with a Super Bowl victory celebration turned upside down in an instant by a mass shooting. Shocking as it was, shootings of the same basic type happen almost twice a day in the United States. KCUR’s Frank Morris reports on how the shooting fits into a pattern of violence.

Cockfighting, the practice of fighting roosters, has been around for centuries. In the U.S. it’s been illegal since 2007, both at the federal and state level. Yet thousands of roosters, known as game fowl, are still raised across the country — including in Missouri.

Now there's one state considering lowering the penalties for cockfighting, and as Harvest Public Media’s Anna Pope reports, people from both game fowl and animal rights groups are watching carefully.

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Kansas City Today is hosted by Nomin Ujiyediin. It is produced by Byron Love and KCUR Studios and edited by Gabe Rosenberg and Lisa Rodriguez.

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As a newscaster and a host of a daily news podcast, I want to deliver the most important and interesting news of the day in an engaging and easily understandable way. No matter where you live in the metro or what you’re interested in, I want you to learn something from each newscast or podcast – and maybe even give you something to talk about at the dinner table.
As an on-demand producer, I am focused on using my skills and experiences across multiple digital applications, platforms and media fields to create community focused audio, video and on-demand products for KCUR Studios. The media that I produce aims to inform, entertain and connect with the Kansas City metro area as we continue to learn from each other. Email me at byronlove@kcur.org.
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