Missouri Senate candidate Lucas Kunce’s attempt to showcase his military skills backfired when a reporter was wounded by a stray bullet fragment during his AR-15 demonstration, drawing mockery from critics and a sharp jab from Sen. Josh Hawley.
Missouri Democrat Senate candidate Lucas Kunce’s campaign event took a bizarre turn when a local reporter was wounded while Kunce was showing off his shooting skills with an AR-15. The incident, which took place in a rural area north of Kansas City, left KSHB-TV’s Ryan Gamboa nursing a wound from what appeared to be a bullet fragment — all while Kunce himself was the only one firing the gun.
In true campaign fashion, Kunce sprang into action, not with another ad about his military service, but with a first-aid kit. While he may be down in the polls to incumbent Sen. Josh Hawley, Kunce found himself patching up the very reporter covering his event. It was a scene no one expected, but perhaps it’ll give him a leg up in the battlefield of the campaign trail — or at least in first-aid training.
Senator Josh Hawley couldn’t resist a jab at his opponent, tweeting, "My grandma is a better shot than Lucas Kunce," after hearing about the mishap. Kunce, who’s been touting his gun-toting, tough-guy image, might have fumbled that narrative a bit as the details of the day unfolded.
Kunce, however, seemed unfazed. On social media, he claimed he had a “great day at the range,” which didn’t sit well with some X users who took aim at his target choices, questioning his decision to shoot steel targets up close with a high-powered rifle. One user suggested, “You could’ve killed somebody today, you freaking moron,” while another quipped, “Ask your boy Tim Walz for a tampon to stop the bleed.”
Kunce might have been hoping to bolster his image as a gun-slinging military man ahead of the election, but instead, he’s dodging bullets of a different kind — from his critics.
.png)