A Democratic US Senate candidate from Missouri will not be charged after a reporter was slightly injured from flyaway metal during a campaign event at a shooting range. Clinton County Sheriff Larry Fish said there was no "ill intent" by Democrat Lucas Kunce or other shooters at the Oct. 22 event on a private shooting range about 30 miles northeast of Kansas City, Missouri, the AP reports. KSHB-TV reporter Ryan Gamboa felt a pinch and later noticed he was bleeding, according to the police report. He continued to cover the event after being bandaged by Kunce, then was treated for a minor injury at a hospital.
Gamboa declined to press charges, calling it a "freak" accident, according to the police report. Fish wrote that it's also unclear who fired the round that led to the injury. The shooting event also featured former US Rep. Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican who is backing Kunce's bid to unseat Republican US Sen. Josh Hawley. According to the incident report, Kinzinger believes Gamboa was hit by "a fragment from a .233 round." The event appeared to be aimed at garnering support for Kunce among gun-owners, Republicans, and moderates in a state now defined by the GOP's political dominance, including a strong belief in gun rights.
Hawley has been mocking Kunce over the incident in TV ads and on social media, calling him a "reckless liberal," and saying he "can't shoot straight," the Missouri Independent reports. Speaking last week at rally on a farm near Jefferson City, Hawley said that Kunce's campaign has long needed "a shot in the arm" but that "he's taken it too literally." He criticized the Kunce event as unsafe, saying that Kunce was too close to steel targets to be firing an AR-15-style rifle. Fish said that after the event he measured the distance between the firing range and targets at about 10 yards. The reporter said he was about 10 yards back from the shooters. (More Election 2024 stories.)
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