Guns & America

Some of the 24 people injured during Kansas City's Super Bowl parade in February have had to resort to credit cards to stay afloat financially, while they wait for promised donations to be delivered. The latest in KCUR’s series “The Injured” looks at the high cost of surviving a mass shooting.

LaTasha Jacobs and Carl Smart have different ideas about why Kansas City's homicide rate is so high, but they plan to work together in Jefferson City to persuade pro-gun lawmakers to consider solutions like better childcare, nutrition and education.

At community listening sessions and in stories about the city's violence problem, we gained some new perspectives on a polarizing and seemingly intractable problem.

Kansas City is poised to have its deadliest year since 2020. Three area high schoolers — Madison Peppers, Bryan Mayer and Mia Myers-Ray — think that education and opportunity are an important part of the solution to gun violence in our region.

Following a recent wave of mass shootings and gun violence, people at a March for Our Lives rally called for a ban on assault weapons, universal background checks, and red flag laws.

Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe revealed that the Olathe East High School shooting involved a “ghost gun,” the second such crime involving this type of weapon in the county in two weeks. What are ghost guns and why do they make the job of law enforcement and prosecutors harder?

One report says the U.S. has just 4% of the world’s population but owns about 40% of civilian-owned firearms globally.

The coronavirus pandemic is increasing food insecurity among young people, and a new podcast now out on NPR explores a family operation generating millions of likes, follows and dollars in the name of gun rights.

Experts fear these increases could continue as the pandemic drags on.

Armed protesters and vigilantes are able to operate freely in much of the country. That’s because many states have increasingly relaxed gun laws, leaving law enforcement unable or unwilling to step in, even when protesters say they are being intimidated.

While uniformed Guard members patrolling the streets creates an unsettling visual, some experts say the National Guard is less likely than police to escalate a situation to violence during a protest thanks to centralized rules of force and standards of accountability.

For years, Kansas City, Missouri, has suffered from one of the highest homicide rates among big American cities.And while it still hasn’t quite reached…