Kansas City mayor advocates for tougher gun laws

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas (D) on Sunday advocated for tougher gun laws to protect citizens in a host of public spaces in response to mass shootings that have plagued the U.S. in recent weeks.

In addition to filing lawsuits against gun manufacturers, Lucas told CBS “Face the Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan that mayors would like to “clamor for more authorities to be able to help prevent gun violence.”

“We need stronger and tougher laws to protect our children,” Lucas said. “Protect our grocery stores, protect our police officers. If you back the blue, you back common-sense gun reform.”

In response to a question about Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) saying that no promises should be made when it comes to bipartisan talks on gun-related legislation, Lucas that it was unfortunate many Republican talking points on the issue include pointing fingers at local Democratic authorities.

“I’m incredibly disappointed to hear this big set of ideas that they have and then basically just thrown up their hands and blaming it on prosecutors, fathers not being in the home and a number of issues other than gun violence in our cities,” Lucas said.

When asked whether it worked to have school districts that allow staff to carry guns in classrooms, as Missouri allows, Lucas said: “No, no, it does not.”

Brennan repeatedly referred to gun violence in the city, with the FBI ranking it as the eighth deadliest in terms of murder rates. When asked what a locally-driven solution might be, Lucas pointed to a measure that curbs access to guns by domestic violence offenders.

“[P]revention is probably the most important step not just to local gun violence that we see every day, but also mass shootings. If you just have people showing up after a scene, as we’ve seen, tragically in Uvalde, and around America, then we will never get in front of this problem,” Lucas said.