ST. LOUIS — It’s important to remember when Missouri’s elected Republicans made the decision to try to crumple up the U.S. Constitution and toss it in the trash bin of history.
It was after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012.
That’s the day 20 children and six adults by a madman with an assault weapon. The nation was horrified — most of us anyway. But some Republicans believed the conspiracy theories pushed by radio talk show host Alex Jones that the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, was a “false flag” operation, that those children didn’t actually die.
About a month later, then-President Barack Obama seeking to begin a national debate on gun safety. Most of the executive orders were in line with ideas that a majority of Americans, regardless of party, believe in — like directing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to study gun violence as the public health problem that it is.
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But the president’s swift action fed another invented Republican narrative: “Obama’s coming for your guns.” And so almost immediately, the effort began to pass the so-called Second Amendment Preservation Act in Missouri.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Brian C. Wimes declared the latest version of the SAPA unconstitutional. It was not a close call.
The measure seeks to nullify federal gun laws. It makes Missouri law enforcement officials civilly liable if they work with federal officials to enforce such laws. It wreaked havoc on task forces that are common in Missouri, with local, state and federal law enforcement officers hamstrung by the law’s bizarre provisions.
That’s why the Department of Justice went to federal court to overturn the law. Two lawsuits in state court, including one filed by St. Mayor Tishaura O. Jones and St. County Executive Sam Page, are pending.
“At best, this statute causes confusion among state law enforcement officials who are deputized for federal task force operations, and at worst, is unconstitutional on its face,” Wimes wrote. “While purporting to protect citizens, SAPA exposes citizens to greater harm by interfering with the Federal Government’s ability to enforce lawfully enacted firearms regulations designed by Congress for the purpose of protecting citizens within the limits of the Constitution.”
In 2013, the first time a version of this law was passed, there was a lone Republican in the Missouri House who stood to oppose it. State Rep. Jay Barnes was a Republican from Jefferson City. He dedicated his life to defending the Constitution, in law and in public service.
“Our Constitution is not a Chinese buffet,” Barnes said in casting his lonely but courageous vote.
That law would pass the Legislature but was vetoed by Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat. Lawmakers kept tinkering with it and waiting for the right moment to pass it, which came along in 2021.
By then, the Constitution had become a blur to most elected Republicans. These days, they’re banning books, erasing American history, telling women what they can do with their bodies and turning people in the LGBTQ community into second-class citizens.
When it comes to keeping our children safe in school buildings, or theaters, or malls, or synagogues and churches, there should be no room for partisan ideologues to hijack the debate. More than 10 years after Newtown, though, there are cracks in the right-wing conspiracy machine.
Jones has lost about a half-billion dollars, and counting, in libel lawsuits brought by the parents of the dead children. Last year, following another massacre of children — this time in Uvalde, Texas — a bipartisan gun safety bill passed Congress. It expands background checks and includes incentives for red-flag laws, which are intended to keep guns from people with mental health issues, such as the man who killed Alexzandria Bell and Jean Kuczka at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School in south St. . Police had visited the shooter previously. His parents wanted them to take his guns. Missouri law wouldn’t allow it.
Now, thanks to Wimes and Congress, law enforcement officers could have more options at their disposal.
Missouri politics being what it is, Attorney General Andrew Bailey, a Republican, has vowed to defend the law and appeal it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. It’s a waste of time and money, and a distraction from what’s really at play here.
Yes, the children of Sandy Hook Elementary were real and they died brutal deaths. No, Obama wasn’t taking your guns, and neither is President Joe Biden. And yes, the people charged with law enforcement in this country, the ones who are behind the various lawsuits to overturn SAPA, want bipartisan solutions to help reduce gun violence.
In St. , police are begging lawmakers to help them be able to take guns from kids on the street, to reduce gun violence, to protect Missouri citizens. Earlier this legislative session, .
How many dead kids will it take to change their minds?