Lucas Kunce is running for Senate against Josh Hawley. He’s not really a threat in the polls, it seems, but he’s trying and he’s also not that far behind. The former Marine is mounting a challenge.

And, while he’s expressed his support for gun control in the past, but he also wants to win in Missouri. You’re not going to win if you come out too hard for gun control, so it’s not surprising that he held a campaign shooting event.

Joining him was former New York congressman Adam Kinzinger, who has expressed his willingness to support things like assault weapon bans.

So far, so good, right?

Well, it’s not so good if you were a reporter at the event.

A bullet fragment struck a TV reporter at a shooting range during a campaign event on Tuesday for U.S. Senate candidate Lucas Kunce, who provided first aid to the journalist. 

Kunce, a Democrat, was at a private residence near Holt north of Kansas City with former U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican, when a fragment appeared to have ricocheted off a target. Kunce was shooting an AR-15 at the time, and was the only person shooting when the injury occurred. 

The reporter, KSHB-TV’s Ryan Gamboa, began bleeding from his arm. Kunce, who spent 13 years in the Marines, wrapped gauze and his belt around the reporter’s arm to help stop the bleeding. The wound was later wrapped with medical tape. Gamboa remained at the range and continued on his assignment.

Absolutely brilliant.

Kunce tried to spin it on X, formerly Twitter, to some degree.

Great day at the range today with my friend @AdamKinzinger. We got to hang out with some union workers while exercising our freedom. Always have your first aid kit handy. Shrapnel can always fly when you hit a target like today, and you’ve got to be ready to go. We had four first… pic.twitter.com/Qu4YxfrtrU

— Lucas Kunce (@LucasKunceMO) October 23, 2024

It was a “great day at the range” when a reporter who wasn’t on the firing line got hit with a bullet fragment?

Man, you need to recalibrate your definition of “a great day” then.

Of course, he touts having four first aid kits there, and as he was a Marine and I was a Navy Corpsman, I have to give a nod to him there. However, his using his belt as a tourniquet takes it away.

First, I’m doubtful any such thing was needed if the reporter was able to continue his assignment, but things have changed from back in my day. A tourniquet was the last line of treatment out of fear of losing the limb back then. A couple of decades of war changed that and moved it up quite a bit. However, my issue with the belt is that it means he didn’t have a proper tourniquet handy. I think anyone at a gun range should have one on hand as a general thing, if not several. In fact, they probably should be an EDC item.

Regardless, this was an absolute disaster for Kunce. Especially when he’s said this about raising the age for people to be able to buy guns:

Pointing to his experience in the military, Kunce said he supports raising the age limit to purchase a gun from 18 to 21.

“There is a world in which if you got the right amount of training and the right amount of observation, then I could go lower with that,” Kunce said. “It’s not like I’m not gonna be draconian about this. But we need things that keep the weapons out of people who are going to be unsafe.”

So basically what Kunce has said is that guns need to be kept out of the hands of Democrats who want to pretend they’re pro-gun. Gotcha.

After all, if the event had been run properly, this incident wouldn’t have happened and if it had, they’d have at least had all the right stuff on hand beyond just some drug store first aid kit. They’d have had a proper tourniquet, for one thing, and they’d have had had reporters backed up enough that this wouldn’t have happened.

But I will say he’s sold me on gun control.

We should keep guns out of the hands of Democrats trying to show out for campaign events.