For many Americans, life can change in an instant.

In this community it's actually the norm to hear gun violence.

We found a receipt for the gun after we lost him.

These two drivers have just had a near miss on the road.

What do you think happens next?

Oh, you're right.

You can't bring your fist to a gunfight and win.

It's not an African-American problem.

It's not an urban core problem.

It's an American problem.

The man who was shot, Paul Long, later died from his wounds.

He left behind a wife and two young children.

The guy who shot him would have been able to claim self-defense and so wasn't prosecuted.

In this film, we'll look at the cost of rising gun violence in America.

Happy 4th of July.

I'll never stop wishing you were back here with me.

The homicides and suicides.

She was afraid of guns.

She had nothing to do with guns.

And yet, for many guns, they're a celebrated part of American freedoms.

I know a lot of a lot of people that have these and they don't do anything wrong with them.

Is it possible to tackle gun violence and yet respect the rights of responsible gun owners?

I have a 50 caliber Desert Eagle handgun.

Can America solve its gun conundrum.

We just need to find somewhere in the middle that we can all come together and figure this out.

Support for the gun conundrum is made possible by the William T Kemper Foundation, Commerce bank Trustee, and the generous financial support of viewers like you.

Thank you.

Kansas City has consistently seen some of the highest rates of gun violence in America, and sometimes it's caught on camera or outside an apartment block in the east of the city.

And Cameron Douglas, in the white car, swerved to avoid an open car door before he parks outside his apartment.

Cameron speaks to the car's occupants and within a few minutes he will be dead.

What do you tell an overly advanced fatherless two and a half year old little girl when she says, I want my daddy.

I'm so sad.

And so mad.

I really love him.

Cameron Parks and gets into his girlfriend's empty car.

Jason Cook stands beside the other car.

The apartment he shares with his girlfriend is across the road.

Cameron walks over to Jason.

Jason has a handgun.

Cameron is unarmed.

They appear to speak.

Cameron starts to walk away and then he turns back.

Jason shoots Cameron, hitting him six times and killing him with a final bullet.

I called either Cameron's mom or my daughter to verify what were we going to?

And they said my son was dead.

With the other two people in the car.

Jason flees the scene.

Police arrest him around 6 hours later.

Now, Cameron's family and friends want justice.

I'm confident that justice will be served when we do go to trial.

We'll find out later when the jury decides.

Across the metro, the gun violence has affected thousands.

My son, Tim Bradley, had got murder.

I lost my son to gun violence.

He got shot for 40 bucks.

He was walking home.

It was in the early morning hours and he was shot and killed.

Like I lost my father when I was four.

In just the last five years in Cpd's Jackson County District, there have been over 700 homicides A nearly two and a half thousand non-fatal shootings.

And the murders are happening elsewhere as well.

In December, 2014, Sean Donaldson was shot and killed in Belgium, Missouri, to the south of Kansas City.

So far, no arrests have been made.

Just knowing that Chad's been dead now for six and a half years and this person is probably walking around freely.

It just hurts me in my heart.

You know.

Not revenge as much as I just want justice.

In Kansas City.

And Jackson County.

The majority of shooting victims are black.

In October, 2003, Rachel Riley's son, Larry, was shot and killed.

So far, no one has been prosecuted for his murder.

You struggle with this each and every day.

I mean, watching these used.

And I'm about to get emotional.

Rachel serves as president of the East 23rd Street PAC.

It's a neighborhood association within zip code.

64127 On Kansas City's East Side.

We're having our neighborhood clean up east.

23rd Street back neighborhood.

On the east side.

We actually show love to our community.

Gun violence has been an issue here for some time.

Nearly 17 years ago in October, 2005 after the city's 96 homicide, he was decided enough was enough.

Just this sense of outrage in the city and like, what are we going to do?

These can't go on like this.

In 2005 nearly 30 experts and community leaders were asked to form a commission on violent crime.

It talked a lot about the youth and what was going on why this crime was happening.

As vice president of a neighborhood at the time, Rachel was asked to serve.

Dr. Stacey Daniels Young chaired the commission.

I didn't start off saying this is a police or a law enforcement problem or a community problem.

Or a school problem, but trying to get representatives from like a circle.

In June, 2006, after more than 1100 hours of work, the commission handed its hundreds 60 page report to City Hall.

We knew the public would wait and we couldn't wait either.

So we came up or what are the things that we need to do immediately.

The report hardly mentioned guns Instead, it found that the causes of homicide were concentrated poverty and fewer assets and opportunities in the same geographic area, primarily in the 64127 zip code.

So how things improved in that zip code?

Nothing's changed.

As far as the gun violence that hasn't stopped.

We got to talk to these young people.

Since 2010, the neighborhood has had this privately run Boys and Girls Club.

But Rachel would like a community center which could serve young adults.

Where a lot of the crime and the gun violence is happening with our 16 and 24 year olds without hope.

Where do they go?

Life expectancy in 64127 Used to be just over 70 years.

Nearly two decades later, it was found to have risen by less than one year.

And that's 15 years less than a zip code around seven miles to the southwest.

We need to bring these young men to a sense of trying to become something in their life to better themselves.

Despite the urgency in 2005 to address the city's homicide rate.

2020 set a new record on the next year saw the second highest number.

And to ask if city hall has done that work.

What does that look like.

One have to ask what exactly does that look like.

In 2011.

A new mayor and a new commission chaired again by Dr. Daniel Young.

She found that most of her 2006 recommendations hadn't been fully implemented.

The problem we saw as the major ones, you know, making it a permanent commission had not been done and there had not been that coordinator that would tie everything together.

We'll find out later if Kansas City's still waiting for a permanent commission and coordinator to tackle gun violence.

Jackson County criminal system must and needs to improve.

It's now approaching three years since Cameron Douglas murderer was arrested and the trial has yet to begin.

If we did not have a city to leave, would not be going to trial.

Bishop Frank Douglas has organized a protest on the steps of Jackson County Courthouse.

I started off with good faith two years ago, right when the killer was found.

And every day after that, it's just been I'm losing more and more faith every day.

Cameron's mother, Terri, won't get to see the trial of her son's killer.

She died from COVID around six weeks ago.

Justice will be when the court gives us justice.

This is asking for justice.

COVID restrictions have slowed the court process, but the average wait time for a homicide trial in Jackson County is around two years.

Molly Hastings works as a defense attorney.

In Jackson County.

Of all the homicides I've handled in my life, 97% of them have been gun related.

Molly is not representing Jason Cook, but over the course of her 21 year career, she's got to know hundreds of people convicted of shooting someone.

The impulse to go from a minimal fight to a gun battle, it doesn't take much.

And how did they acquire the guns?

Whatever regulations are in place, I think are largely ignored.

If you need a gun in a pinch, people sell guns on the street.

People take guns, steal guns.

Most prison inmates who'd been convicted of using a gun in their crime had either bought it off the street or obtained it from a friend or relative.

Jamal is no longer involved in crime, but when he was, he would break into houses and vehicles, and sometimes he'd find guns.

Just pistols, for real.

Yes, it was out.

Like they'd be like under the or something.

Jamal used a gun he found in an armed robbery in 2018 while he was out on parole after jail.

He was shot in the back while walking home from a convenience store.

Like I was in the hospital and I woke up and it was like, you know, you paralyzed.

And then I had a wheelchair on the side of my bed.

Like many people, Jamal also wanted a gun for self-defense.

I was just scared for my safety.

The world is getting crazy.

I know.

God is my protector, but I don't think he would mind if I had a little extra protection.

In recent years, gun sales have gone up, but not everyone sees the need to own more.

I don't have a reason to carry a gun.

I'm not preying on anyone.

I don't have any quarrel with anyone.

Michael works as an I.T.

analyst, a music producer.

On the off chance of me getting into an altercation.

It's a little less likely if you behave in a way that keeps you out of that type of trouble.

Michael grew up near downtown on Kansas City's East Side The immediate area was considered safe, but occasionally gun violence would spill in.

I can remember him sitting at the table doing my homework.

Wow.

OK, that's a high caliber gun.

By the way, we know calibers of guns.

Didn't know was my friend Pittman getting shot at the.

Street over drug dealers and a friend of his or something like this.

That you hear them all the time.

You never know what's going on.

After a while, you start to.

Try to ignore that just because it's too much.

The following year in 1991, when Michael was 14 one of his friends decided to get a gun after a group of guys with guns had threatened them.

And as I turned it just kind of was what happened they ran to me.

Are you here?

Michael's friend had accidentally shot him.

I see a gleaming hole that immediately starts bleeding red.

He nearly died.

And.

Oh, oh, oh, oh.

And I tensed up.

He still lives on the east side of Kansas City, but further to the south.

I don't want to say take away all the guns.

But jeez, do you have to have so many They get into hands of people.

They probably shouldn't be.

Do you hear gunshots here at night?

Yeah.

Daytime, too.

Since I've lived here, I'll try to learn to decipher what's real how close it is and to hit the ground.

Tommy is one of Michael's neighbors.

She's now retired and volunteers at a local church.

Today is our food giveaway for Christmas.

We also do this every two weeks here in Kansas City.

Only started 634.

Brooklyn on the corner.

Just over two years ago.

There was a shooting in the property opposite where she lives.

Both sides of the street was just filled with police cars.

And that's when I found out a young man was killed on the corner.

Up until now, Tammy has carried a knife for protection.

You might get a couple of good jabs in if you pull it and have to use it, you know?

But now she'd like to buy a gun.

What are you going to do with the gun?

I'm going to defend myself.

If I feel threatened, I may ignore you or I will respond to it.

I even have to tell Tammy this.

You know, I'm like you being a gun owner might require you to take somebody's life.

Who's going to help you make this purchase?

Mamie Oh, my cousin is a gun expert.

It's funny.

People probably think I'm weird, but it's like a a release of tension.

I actually like the smell of gunpowder.

Lee had careers in the military and law enforcement.

He's now a part time bounty hunter and a full time gun enthusiast.

Wherever that red dot is, that's where the bullet tends to go.

Like many gun owners, Lee only sees the point of a gun to self-defense if it's on hand and ready to be used.

Criminals are not going to wait for you to find a magazine load.

The magazine put the magazine into the firearm chamber around and then like, OK, I'm ready now.

That's not going to happen.

If you put it in the basement in a gun safe, then it's as good as a rock.

So we put one so we could get to it in a short amount of time.

So I sleep with a gun literally on my nightstand right next to me.

I live in a great neighborhood.

John and Betty Anne live in South Kansas City, Missouri.

They bought a small handgun for home defense and kept it hidden but ready to be used.

I didn't think she knew where it was.

I also didn't think there was a risk factor there.

Hey, Mom, it's Kathy again.

I was just saying, if you guys go home.

Betty Ann's daughter, Cassie, was living independently and occasionally she was.

She didn't seem like she was upset about anything.

Later that evening, she showed up and she said hi.

And then she went straight to the bedroom.

Cassie was living with bipolar disorder.

Betty Ann and John weren't aware that she'd become suicidal.

Then she started complaining about her doctor.

And so I told her we could change your doctor the next week.

And I left for a few minutes.

I told John that Cassie was really upset And then we heard a gunshot.

Cassie knew where they'd hidden the gun, and she used it to take her own life.

John took the gun out of her lap, and I was screaming.

And we known.

We certainly would have made it extremely difficult for her to.

To get to it.

I don't believe that there should be any change in gun rights.

But the minute someone shows that they have a mental illness, people should be immediately warned to take proper steps.

Over the last decade in both Missouri and Kansas, there's been a rise in the number of suicides where a firearm is used.

We keep him locked in a gun safe, and it's like, well, how would he have gotten our guns and wasn't our gun?

This was his graduation.

My son actually left a letter to try to explain to us the reason that he took his life.

He was going to miss me so much and that I'd always been there for him.

Angela's son, Jacob, was living with bipolar disorder at the time.

The family home was in the next in Kansas.

This was Jacob the day before we lost him.

At the age of 20.

He decided to take his own life.

And the letter he left his mother.

He explained why he used the gun.

He said he went with a method high success rate.

So he chose to purchase a shotgun.

Something he couldn't screw up.

That's what he.

Said.

On the 10% of all suicide attempts are fatal.

But if a gun is used, the fatality rate is nearly 90%.

And that's much higher than the nearest most lethal method.

I'm not anti-gun but I really wish that there were waiting periods.

I wish that him at 20 years old could have just gone and bought a gun that day.

Maybe he would have changed his mind.

In firearm related deaths in both Missouri and Kansas.

Suicides claim more victims than homicides But that's not the whole story of guns.

I load the firearm again, muzzle pointed downrange.

It will not shoot until I decide which barrel I want to shoot.

On this day in the fall of 2021.

David is the safety coordinator on a hunt near peculiar 30 miles south of Kansas City.

We're looking forward to have a fun day.

And again, the number one thing we stress on these hunts is safety.

It's a generational thing here for us.

It's the opportunity to be able to.

Experience something like this at a young age.

As I got to do this when I was a kid.

Generally hunting legally in Missouri or Kansas requires a hunting license, and that's only issued once you've passed a safety course.

These young men took it the previous day.

Good shot.

Good shot.

In Missouri, the Hunter Education course teaches how to safely store a gun, transport it, and then use it in the field.

And the purpose is to not hurt yourself or hurt other people.

But as in most states, Kansas and Missouri don't require safety training.

If you just wish to purchase a gun, if.

You purchase a car, the kids have to take driver's education.

Guns are weapons just like the cars are weapons.

This is AK.

47 sporting rifle.

People have a bad habit of calling them assault weapons.

A lot of the gun laws they make to me are stupid.

But in my opinion, if you own a firearm, you should be required to get trained.

I think that should be one of the laws.

Within the last decade, Missouri and Kansas have done away with the need for training.

If you wish to carry a concealed handgun on you in public.

Former Governor Sam Brownback of Kansas said at the time Americans have a right to be armed.

It is a constitutional right, and we're removing a barrier to that right.

Not everyone who knows guns agrees with the changes to the law.

I'm in favor of concealed carry, but to me it should be required for concealed carry people to have firearm training.

I do like my hunting.

Former SWAT guy.

I like my guns.

I like to have the fun.

But I do know that there does need to be some training.

At the Police Athletic League or.

Powell in Strawberry Hill, Kansas.

City, Kansas.

They mentor over a thousand local kids.

Tonight is their first class on gun safety.

We're as we said, these kids are encountering guns but what they are encountering is the information about how deadly they can be.

They're getting the same gun safety as I got in a police academy in 20.

A little over 2200 kids died from gunshot wounds in the U.S. that was up around 30% from the year before.

Dr. Denise Dowd works at Children's Mercy Hospital.

Suicide, homicide.

Unintentional injury where kids find a gun, shoot themselves.

Unfortunately, it's common.

Dr. Dowd believes the curiosity of kids and the impulsiveness of teenagers don't mix well with guns.

In her view, lessons can be learned from how we reduce deaths on our roads.

That's largely the story of the success, not of people just driving safer, but the success of engineering of cars to make them safer, engineering of highways to make them safer.

Laws about speeding.

We can apply the same approach to gun death in this country if we had the willpower to do so.

Before helping to open the panel in 2019.

Matt had a 23 year career on the other side of the state line with Casey PD during his time as an officer.

He came across guns more often.

When I was first on, you would encounter people with firearms, but it wasn't every day.

It went from there to guns are everywhere.

I think gun laws have changed.

In 2007.

Missouri repealed its permit to purchase law.

This is required a background check for any purchase of a handgun including from an unlicensed seller.

The repeal is associated with a rise in gun deaths in the state.

If you wish to buy a gun from a federally licensed store like this one, there's a process in place.

So we need an actual ID and then we have a standard form here that the federal government issued to us.

It's a ATF, FBI background check.

You could get a gun and walk out with it today if you do pass that background check.

The background check helps to keep guns out of the hands of felons or those are judged by the court to be mentally incompetent.

However, in Kansas and Missouri, checks like this aren't required for private sales.

Gun locks as well.

With the purchase here to keep the weapons stored safely.

Your purchase of a handgun from a licensed store should come with a gun lock.

But a private seller wouldn't have to give you one.

That way it's locked and secure.

You have to go through more red tape to buy a pack of Cigarets as a teenager.

In the state of Missouri than to get a handgun.

That is problematic.

In October 2021, the trial of Jason Cook, the man who shot and killed Cameron Douglas, begins.

I think the judge has done an excellent job.

Our prosecutors are standing up for my son.

Hopefully within somewhere less than four to 8 hours, we'll get some resolve.

But that will never, never give me my son.

That's it for today.

The jury will hear that when Jason was a child, his father was shot and killed and that Jason had legally bought a handgun after being robbed at gunpoint around six months before the shooting.

Video just kind of gives a perspective.

We'll never know.

Camera side of the story.

Unfortunately, we only have a version of the truth.

Cameron Douglas was loved by the.

Strong single rocket How many years can you put on your brother's life for your father's life?

What's what is justice?

He had another seven years of life to live.

The next day, the jury delivered its verdict and recommended a sentence.

If he was given 20 years and I had 30 years, we wouldn't have been out here celebrating because Cameron's life is down.

Unfortunately, the day the murder of my son Jason Cook only received three years on involuntary manslaughter and three years for armed criminal acts.

Six years does not equate to the pain that I feel every day working as a single mom at home with my daughter.

Our justice system failed my family.

Two months later and a judge sentenced Jason Cook to six years in total.

Even if you have a gun, it's getting more and more dangerous and it's not even necessarily you have to do anything to a person.

To carry a gun.

Yourself.

Not anymore.

I have three young sons, and that's just not the example I want to set right now.

In some ways, the Douglas family was fortunate.

The case made it this far.

The footage meant they weren't reliant on witnesses.

What extent, in your experience.

Do witnesses feel threatened?

Oh, gosh, I'd say I'd say I don't have a case where that hasn't really been an issue.

Witness is no show for court all the time because of the fear of retaliation.

And some people don't like the police.

Jamal offered no information after he was shot.

Explain to me why you don't want to talk to the police.

No, I just don't like them.

There's not just one reason why we're seeing the level of gun violence.

Some of it has to do with what people define as justice for themselves.

Damon Daniels organization provides victims services and tries to be the bridge between the community and the Justice System.

For low income communities and communities of color.

And particularly, the justice system has never really been our friend.

In Cpd's Jackson County, District, around 40% of homicide victims don't reach the stage of their cases being referred by the police to the prosecutors.

Four nonfatal shootings around 8% of victims don't have their cases referred.

Of those cases that are referred for homicides and shootings, around a quarter are declined by prosecutors.

Where they pursue the case.

Most don't make it to trial, and it's usual for a sentence to be agreed on in a plea bargain.

Damon has concerns about the sentencing in some homicide cases.

I'll be specific and say that in Jackson County, it does seem like the sentencing is quite light.

If I were to go to plat or play and commit some of the same crimes, oh, my gosh.

If we throw the book at us.

As a defense attorney, I prefer to be in Jackson County.

There's a joke sometimes that I have passed along to clients of mine to say if you're if you're going to get in trouble, do it here.

Do not cross the county lines.

We found that the average length of a plea bargain sentence for a homicide case in Jackson County was around six years less than in Clark County.

In a statement, Jackson County prosecutor's office said Research clearly shows that the thing that persuades persons not to offend is the certainty of being caught, not the length of sentence.

And to compare sentences in Clay County, to Kansas City is a logical fallacy.

It takes great skill and perseverance to meet injustice anywhere but in communities with historic and pervasive violence.

It simply takes more.

Since Dr. Daniel Young's 2006 report, Kansas City hasn't lacked for committees, task forces and initiatives trying to tackle violent crime.

I get disappointed when I hear there's other committees forming.

It's very frustrating.

Looking at the same data.

Just maybe in a different way.

Here we are.

And yet here we are.

At the moment.

Kansas City has at least three initiatives working on violent crime.

There's a voluntary Casey Committee, which Damon and Teresa sit on.

It has its own blueprint to an extent.

Is the implementation of those strategies actually being measured?

Measured by, I would say, an external evaluator?

Not at all.

And we have a saying in evaluation that what gets measured gets done.

Then there's the Community Safety Partnership, which is following its own plan with more of a law enforcement emphasis.

The two committees share some members, but don't formally work together.

So I'm a little perplexed by that as well.

We need to connect those two efforts.

And then there's Casey.

Common good.

Damon sits on the board.

He hopes this will eventually provide the coordination needed.

I'm banking on them to do that.

In the meantime, while the city waits, mothers visit the graves of their children.

And a warning from six years ago continues to reverberate.

If this community continues forward with relatively no change, blindly refusing to address the systemic problems festering in our hotspot neighborhoods, then we will suffer.

The harm reverberated in 2005.

Again.