Tombstone’s City Marshal Virgil Earp got a tip-off on Oct. 26, 1881 – Ike Clanton and several members of the gang known as the Cowboys were planning to assassinate lawmen in the Arizona town.
Earp, together with his brothers Morgan and Wyatt, and Wyatt’s friend Doc Holliday, went down to the O.K. Corral intending to “disarm” the gang members. The new Netflix docudrama “Wyatt Earp and the Cowboy War” explains why the 30-second gunfight that ensued is one of the most famous episodes in 19th-century U.S. history. The six-episode series has an A-list actor, Ed Harris, narrating; meanwhile, there are historians and authors on screen helping to tell the story, including former Irish Echo columnist Edward O’Donnell of College of Holy Cross.
It doesn’t explicitly spell out, however, that the Wyatts and Holliday could legally disarm their would-be attackers because Tombstone was a town where one was required to give up one’s firearms upon entering it. The Wild West had generally stricter gun laws than those that are in place in much of today’s America.
These days, it’s often an uphill battle getting appropriate ordinances enacted.
When a deadly gunfight broke out at the Union Station victory rally for the Super Bowl-winning Kansas City Chiefs early this year, locals were left wondering exactly what laws were in place to prevent such incidents.
An article in the Kansas City Star said at the time, “Missouri places very few restrictions on firearm possession, and takes pains to override all local laws regarding firearms that aren’t explicitly laid out in state law already.” (This is another article on the laws from Feb. 20.)
It added, “Kansas City’s code of municipal ordinances prohibits minors from carrying concealed handguns — but the state supersedes that ban with its wide-reaching preemption of all local firearm related ordinances.” (Those arrested following the incident and ultimately deemed responsible were minors. One of them was 15.)
A July 10, 2023, investigation in the paper said, “Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit group that promotes stricter gun laws, said Missouri has among the least restrictive gun laws in the nation.
“The group, which has successfully sued gun manufacturers, said Missouri ranks 38th among the 50 states when it comes to gun law strength. They also said Missouri has among the highest gun deaths, gun homicide rates and the highest number of household firearm ownership. Last year, Kansas City recorded 185 homicides, making it one of the deadliest years, according to data maintained by The Star, which includes fatal police shootings.”
The heart-breaking case of Shaun Brady isn’t considered high-profile. The people of Kansas City know about it, as do those more broadly in the states of Missouri and neighboring Kansas. And of course, it’s been well-publicized in the Irish-born community in America. Meantime, people back home in Brady’s native Ireland were horrified and saddened at the news.
For the rest of the world. the 44-year-old husband and father of young children gunned down in Kansas City last month is just a statistic.
Brady, though, is not just a victim of the teenage shooter, who was caught within an hour of the horrific crime; he was a casualty of the culture of gun worship. One might say also that the state of Missouri had a role in his killing.
There is a basic undeniable correlation between permissive attitudes to weaponry and the homicide rate of any jurisdiction. Missouri, unfortunately, is a state that actually takes pride in having lax gun laws – laws it imposes on its major cities.
The wide-ranging investigation by the Star more than a year before Brady’s death was entitled: “Kansas City is ‘awash in firearms’ but Missouri bans local leaders from regulating guns.”
It said, “As Kansas City confronts a rising tide of killings this year, one tool remains out of bounds for local leaders and law enforcement: restrictions on guns. For nearly 40 years, the Missouri General Assembly has retained for itself the sole authority to regulate firearms. The closely guarded power has kept city councils and county commissions around the state from imposing limits on concealed weapons or requiring the registration of handguns.”
It continued, “But as the toll of gun violence has mounted in Kansas City and St. Louis in recent years, that power faces a growing challenge from anti-violence advocates, local leaders and others frustrated by what they say is a major obstacle to combating the daily rhythm of shootings in the two cities. The Republican-controlled legislature’s sweeping control over gun laws – and its steady relaxation of restrictions – has spurred a nascent campaign to amend the Missouri Constitution to restore the ability of the state’s two biggest cities to set rules limiting guns.”
It quoted Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas telling reporters, “I think the community is awash in firearms and largely firearms that are in place where people either are drinking or looking at retaliation, are looking at any number of issues. And I think it is clear, not just from Kansas City, but if you talk to mayors, prosecutors and police officers in any major city in the country, these are ingredients that have led to more incidents [see below] like these.”
That Star piece continued, “Still, when it comes to the guns themselves, local leaders say their hands are often tied. ‘I fully support cities having the ability to come up with responsible limits to gun access in any number of places … we continue to fight the Missouri legislature about firearms on buses and transit, which I think creates substantial concern,’ Lucas said. Lucas made the comments during a news conference with Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker announcing murder charges in a mass shooting at Klymax Lounge in May that killed three people and injured two others. Baker and Lucas noted state law allowed guns at the nightclub.”
Even though someone like Peters Baker is clearly doing her job, the Republican response is usually, “Do your job!”
“I don’t think that they should have more latitude to restrict Second Amendment rights,” the Star quoted state Sen. Denny Hoskins, a Warrensburg Republican who was running for Missouri secretary of state at the time, saying. “The solution that needs to happen is they need to start prosecuting criminals and putting violent criminals behind bars.”
(That was quite mainstream in its tone. Republicans in Missouri often go to extremes in primary elections. One Trump-endorsed candidate for attorney general, the incumbent, tried to outdo his Trump-endorsed challenger recently by saying that a man who’d just been exonerated after more than 30 years in prison should stay there because the original jury had found him guilty.)
The Star’s July 2023 article said, “Lucas and others seeking local control over guns are fighting a decades-long shift in Missouri in favor of ready access to firearms that’s swept away nearly all major restrictions. The General Assembly in 1984 passed a bill preempting the authority of local governments to restrict guns except in limited circumstances, such as banning their discharge in city limits. The arguments for and against fell along similar lines to the gun debate today. During a House committee hearing, proponents said the legislation would allow ‘uniformity’ on firearms across the state. Opponents charged that ‘what is considered acceptable in rural areas may not be acceptable in urban areas,’ according to an official legislative summary of the hearing.
A sign in the window of a Kansas City business.
“Missouri voters in 1999 narrowly rejected an early form of concealed carry, only for the General Assembly to impose it in 2003 over the veto of Democratic Gov. Bob Holden. In 2007, lawmakers repealed a law requiring a permit to purchase handguns – a change that led to 49 to 68 additional firearms deaths each year in Missouri over the following decade, Johns Hopkins researchers found.”
The Star continued, “The legislature has continued to loosen restrictions on guns in recent years.
“Lawmakers have lowered the conceal carry age to 19, allowed concealed weapons without a permit and even passed the Second Amendment Preservation Act, an audacious attempt to prohibit the enforcement of certain federal firearms laws in Missouri. A federal judge struck down the law earlier this year; the decision has been appealed.”
Melissa Robinson, a member of Kansas City council, said, “There’s a feeling of terror that residents feel and there is nothing that we can do about it because of the state laws.”
