Why you can trust us By Alice Skipton 4 MIN READIn 2016 the murder rate in Kansas City spiked inexplicably. Homicides that year rose 14 percent in Kansas City, Missouri, and 42 percent in Kansas City, Kansas, even as other large U.S. cities saw their rates decline. Now the Kansas City station has a chance to broaden that level of reporting by examining another disturbing American dynamic: gun violence. KCUR is one of 10 public radio stations nationwide selected to participate in a new collaborative, two-year fellowship called Guns & America. In that year-long series, reporters examined the emotional forces behind more than 200 murders in the Kansas City area in 2016.