Mourn St. Louis school shooting victims. Condemn lawmakers behind Missouri’s gun laws
A teacher and a student died following a shooting Monday at a high school in St. Louis. Several others were injured.
Alexzandria Bell, a sophomore, was on the school dance team. The teacher, 61-year-old Jean Kuczka, appears to have put her body between the killer and students.
The suspected shooter was killed by St. Louis police.
We mourn the loss of life, and offer condolences to the families and friends of the victims. We join with all Americans in condemning yet another act of gun violence in a school.
The facility, Central Visual and Performing Arts High School, appears to have been hardened against an attack, yet it happened anyway. The White House called the attack “senseless,” and it was certainly that.
In Missouri, though, senseless shootings — in a high school, in a parking lot, at a weekend fair — are entirely predictable. Its lawmakers have pursued reckless, senseless gun legislation for years. The state’s General Assembly, and its governor, have created the violent world in which all Missourians live.
“It was only a matter of time until something like this happened here,” state Sen. Karla May of St. Louis said Monday. “To see the violence that is happening everywhere and to act like it wasn’t going to come home, I don’t know what to say about that.”
Consider, for example, the Second Amendment Preservation Act, passed in 2021 and now a part of Missouri law. “All federal acts, laws, executive orders, administrative orders, rules, and regulations … shall be invalid to this state, shall not be recognized by this state, shall be specifically rejected by this state, and shall not be enforced by this state,” SAPA says.
There’s more. Under SAPA, local officials are prohibited from assisting any federal official in enforcing federal gun laws. In the St. Louis case, that means local authorities risk a fine if they cooperate with the FBI or the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in their investigation of the shooting.
This could compromise the work in St. Louis. The shooter may have obtained his weapon illegally, or without a background check, which is generally required under federal law. The seller or sellers could face federal criminal liability.
If St. Louis police find such evidence, they may be precluded from sharing it with federal authorities. Had they found such evidence before the shooting, they risked a lawsuit if they shared it with the feds. It’s dangerous and appalling.
Local and federal authorities are permitted to work together to enforce Missouri’s gun laws. We hope and expect they will do so in this case.
The broader point still matters: SAPA prevents full enforcement of laws designed to prevent tragedies like the one in St. Louis. Republican state lawmakers complain relentlessly and inaccurately about alleged “defunding” of police, yet they have taken proactive steps to hamstring enforcement of gun regulations.
That’s not only defunding the police — it’s disarming them. That has to stop.
The Justice Department has sued to stop Missouri from enforcing SAPA. “This act impedes criminal law enforcement operations in Missouri,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement.
“The United States will work to ensure that our state and local law enforcement partners are not penalized for doing their jobs to keep our communities safe,” he said.
SAPA is clearly unconstitutional, and we expect the courts to say so. For now, it is also bad law.
After Monday’s shooting, several Missouri politicians — Attorney General Eric Schmitt, Gov. Mike Parson, Sen. Josh Hawley — expressed sorrow and remorse for the shooting. “Teresa and I are praying for the victims, their families, and the entire community,” Parson said in a tweet.
Missourians should join Parson in that prayer. Then they should demand that he, and others in the state, stop making their gun fetish more important than protecting innocent life.
This story was originally published October 25, 2022 at 11:25 AM.