KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Kansas City television reporter was injured by shrapnel on Tuesday while covering a campaign event for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Lucas Kunce. The incident occurred at a makeshift gun range near Kansas City, where Kunce was firing an AR-15 style rifle.
The sketchy and unsafe gun range included steel targets set just a few feet from where Kunce was shooting an AR-15 “assault weapon” style rifle. The targets were in an unsafe configuration too close, as Kunce zeroed in with a high powered scope on the targets just a few feet away from him.
The bullet ricocheted off the target and struck the reporter in the arm.
According to local NBC affiliate KSHB, their reporter, Ryan Gamboa, was struck in the arm by a piece of shrapnel that ricocheted off a metal target. Gamboa was reporting on the event at the time of the incident.
Kunce, who is running for the U.S. Senate, was seen helping Gamboa by wrapping a bandage around the reporter’s injured arm. The extent of the injury has not been detailed, but no further complications were reported.
It is sheer luck that the bullet only struck his arm and that nobody had ever been injured at that backyard makeshift range previously.
After the shooting, Kunce posted on X, “Great day at the range today with my friend Adam Kinzinger.”
There are no reports of charges at this time, The campaign event continued after the incident, and no other injuries were reported and no other innocent bystanders were struck by Kunce’s reckless actions.
Kunce downplayed the seriousness of his negligence.
“Always have your first aid kit handy. You never know what’s going to happen,” Kunce said in a news release. “Shrapnel can always bounce off of anything and you’ve got to be ready to go. We had four first aid kits here, and I’m pretty proud of that. We were able to take care of the situation, and I’m glad Ryan is okay and was able to continue reporting.”
According to reports, Kunce was using the ‘weapon of war’ for recreation in a residential backyard.
