KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Missouri state Rep. Maggie Nurrenbern has been sounding the alarm for years over the state’s loose gun laws and in February introduced a bill limiting the scope of Missouri’s “stand your ground” law. The bill went nowhere.
Over the weekend, Nurrenbern, who is white, found herself explaining to her adopted 9-year-old son, who is Black, the shooting of Ralph Yarl – a Black 16-year-old Kansas City student who is alleged to have been shot twice by a white homeowner in the Northland after ringing the doorbell of a residence while looking for his brothers.
“I think we now have a shoot first, ask later policy in this state, or at least that is what people have interpreted it to be,” said Nurrenbern, a Democrat who represents a swath of the Northland.
