ST. LOUIS — Sen. Nick Schroer sought to foment fear.
It was just before the final week of the Missouri Legislature’s regular session. The Republican from St. Charles County was tweeting about a weekend spike of gun violence in St. ÑÇÖÞÎÞÂë.
“More people were murdered over the weekend and the Wild West literally in the streets,†he wrote. “Blood on your hands if no action taken!â€
That tweet, which called for having more “police on the front lines,†accompanied a photo and video of a person walking downtown Saturday night, carrying what looks like an AR-15-style assault weapon.
In a city with a homicide rate that is consistently one of the highest in the nation, it is indeed a frightful image that invokes the Wild West. Coming the day after yet another mass shooting in America, this one at an outlet mall in Texas, the image was even more foreboding.
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But before Schroer assigns who has blood on their hands if “no action†is taken, he might examine his own actions — and those of his fellow Republicans. The Wild West he now laments was predicted by Democrats as far back as 2016, during one of the many years that Republicans in the Missouri Legislature were weakening gun safety laws.
I’d like all members to take a good look. Gun laws and crime bills don’t matter if you don’t have police on the front lines. More people murdered over the weekend and the Wild West literally in the streets. Blood on your hands if no action taken!
— Nick Schroer 🇺🇸 🇮🇪 🇩🇪 (@NickBSchroer)
In 2016, then-Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, had vetoed a bill that did away with permits for concealed-carry of weapons and expanded the state’s already broad “stand your ground†law. As lawmakers were debating an override of the veto, Democrats predicted a return to the Wild West — using those very words. So did police officers, who supported Nixon’s veto because the bill would make it almost impossible for them to arrest people walking around with weapons of war.
Kevin Ahlbrand, then the president of the Fraternal Order of Police, said the law “will cost not only citizen lives but will also be extremely dangerous to law enforcement officers.â€
Republicans didn’t back the blue. They passed the dangerous law. Rep. Rick Brattin, R-Harrisonville, called it that such a bill would create a “Wild, Wild West.â€
Fast forward to 2023. Brattin is now in the Senate, serving side by side with Schroer.
The Republicans have reaped what they sowed, says state Rep. Peter Merideth, D-St. ÑÇÖÞÎÞÂë. Merideth doesn’t disagree that the city where he lives sometimes looks like the Wild West. But he says the very Republicans pounding the issue are to blame for the laws that allow a person in St. ÑÇÖÞÎÞÂë — including a child — to carry an AR-15 down the street, even in broad daylight.
“Police have told us on a regular basis that this is a big problem,†Merideth says. “There’s not anything police can do about it. It’s insanity.â€
The insanity exists because Missouri Republicans — with the support of some Democrats early on — have for decades chipped away at gun safety laws. They got rid of permits, expanded conceal-carry and, two years ago, passed the so-called Second Amendment Preservation Act. That was an attempt to not only nullify all federal gun laws in Missouri but also make local police officers liable for trying to enforce them.
The result, Merideth keeps pointing out, is that there’s no law against a child carrying a weapon in public in the city of St. ÑÇÖÞÎÞÂë — or anywhere else in Missouri. All session long, he’s being trying to get his Republican colleagues to help.
Merideth has tried several times to add an amendment to various bills to make it illegal for children to openly carry guns in public. Even if Republicans didn’t want to pass such laws in their communities, thinking they might somehow limit hunting, Merideth has asked them to allow individual cities and counties to pass such laws.
“Surely we can all agree that a 15-year-old kid walking down the street with an AR-15 strapped to his shoulder is a bad idea?†Merideth asks.
Apparently not. His most recent attempt at passing the amendment didn’t get a single Republican vote. Not one.
“It’s infuriating,†Merideth says.
As the session comes to end, Schroer is pushing a likely losing battle for the state to take over control of the police department in the “Wild West†of St. ÑÇÖÞÎÞÂë. And yet he won’t even listen to the law enforcement officials who have been asking for help with gun safety laws to make the city a safer place.
“It’s their fault the Wild West exists,†Merideth says of his colleagues across the political aisle, “and they won’t do anything about it.â€
It’s like Schroer said: If no action is taken, blood will be on somebody’s hands.