Kansas City Should Hold Off On Following St. Louis On Parks Rule

Cities with high violent crime rates look anywhere for a solution. Thanks to the biased reporting being done by our mainstream media, the primary method most consider is gun control. In fairness, these are urban centers, which tend to vote Democrat anyway, so gun control is probably going to be the solution pushed regardless of what the media says.

Advertisement

Anyway, St. Louis recently reclassified parks as child care facilities in an effort to ban guns there. It’s an effort to get around the state’s preemption law, and one that I seriously doubt will survive a legal challenge, but also a measure that’s not likely to have much of an impact on the criminals who are causing the problems.

Despite that, it seems some want Kansas City to pass a similar measure.

With state lawmakers throwing up roadblocks, both Kansas City and St. Louis leaders have been forced to get creative in their attempts to reduce the gun violence that has plagued Missouri’s largest metro areas.

In this anything-goes gun-rights state, cities have little wiggle room to enact even the most modest restrictions on firearms.

But Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas has managed to pass ordinances that prohibit domestic abusers and minors from possessing guns.

Now, St. Louis has taken action to keep guns out of city parks. The St. Louis Board of Aldermen recently approved an ordinance that classifies the city’s parks as child care facilities, which state law mandates are gun-free zones.

Could Kansas City steal a page from St. Louis’ playbook and do the same?

Lucas said he’ll watch the St. Louis measure closely before deciding whether to pursue a similar proposal.

That’s probably the smartest thing Lucas could do besides outright dismissing the idea completely.

For one, it’s highly unlikely that the courts will buy the idea that parks are child care facilities. While kids often play there, parks are generally open to the public of all ages. A lot of adults use the parks for various lawful purposes, mostly depending on what’s in the park. I think local governments would be hardpressed to argue that adults can make use of child care facilities supported by their tax dollars.

Advertisement

Plus, there’s a lack of adult supervision at parks. Sure, parents might be on hand, but there’s no staff. If a child gets hurt, even if they were doing something stupid, I can’t help but believe that the status of them being child care facilities will be brought up in court.

Honestly, there’s no good outcome for this, so Lucas saying he’ll watch it may be the smartest move possible.

Yet the Kansas City Star comparing it to Lucas’s efforts to pass ordinances that mimic existing laws about gun prohibition for domestic abusers and minors is asinine. Then again, when you see the anti-gun media talking about gun control, they fail to understand that there are substantive differences between mimicking state or federal laws so local police can enforce them and making some crap up because it sounds good.

The editorial board at the paper, the very people who wrote the above-quoted section, should know better.

Join the conversation as a VIP Member