KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Days after the Kansas City mass shooting on Wednesday, gun control advocates now calling for change in certain Missouri laws at a gun violence rally today.
"I want to talk about policy changes now, not later," Manuel Abarca IV, chairman of the Jackson County Health and Environment Committee, said during his speech at the rally on Saturday. "Not thoughts and prayers first, now!"
The mass shooting on February 14 at the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl Parade left one person dead and 22 others wounded— half of those being children.
The tragedy in Kansas City is shining a light on continued gun violence in Missouri.
"While we were in the bathroom, trying to survive, fearing for our lives, [my daughter] said 'Daddy, this is a drill right?'" Abarca said.
He told her it was a drill to try to keep her calm, though he knew it was not.
Two juveniles were detained on gun-related and resisting arrest charges in connection with the mass shooting.
St. Louis criminal justice experts say sometimes people keep or carry firearms to feel safe. Kenya Brumfield-Young, an assistant professor of criminology and criminal justice at Saint Louis University, said there's "a protective factor."
"They feel they're in danger in places they live or [from] people they may come into contact with," Brumfield-Young added.
Kansas City Police believe a dispute between several people led to the shooting. However, it is an active investigation.
Related: Shooting after Chiefs Super Bowl parade seemed to stem from dispute among several people, police say
"Missouri does not have a law that prohibits young people from actually possessing firearms," Brumfield-Young said. "They can not purchase nor can they conceal, but under certain circumstances, they can absolutely carry."
This weekend's gathering in Kansas City was supported by the national Moms Demand Action organization as they work to stop a continued cycle of violence.
"To lose my daughter to it— I don't want to see this continue into the next generation," Moms Demand Action member here in St. Louis, Niadu Allen, told 5 On Your Side. "Yet, what I see every day on the news, it's already here."
A mother living in Kansas City, Sarah Pope, brought her fourth-grade son Tyrus to Saturday's rally. Emphasizing in an interview to KCTV that "he needs to understand what's happening on the national level."
"He's going to be making decisions as a voter sometime," Pope said. "I want him to see that we could probably be doing more as a society to protect children in the community from gun violence. It's unnecessary."
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas told KCTV at Saturday's rally, "We want to have the freedom to live."
"We want to have the freedom to go to a park, to a school, to an event, to a parade without being concerned and without being afraid," the mayor said.
There was some good news Saturday from Kansas City: All 12 children treated at Children's Mercy Hospital after the shooting were discharged.