State Rep. Stacy Newman (D-Richmond Heights) has been a relentless leader on addressing gun violence in the Missouri Legislature, so she had moral authority – if not political clout, as a Democrat up against a Republican governor with Republican supermajorities in both state houses – when she addressed Governor-elect Eric Greitens after his spouse (Sheena Greitens, an accomplished academic and author) was robbed at gunpoint in St. Louis’ Central West End, near their home. Newman invited the governor-elect, a military veteran who waged a pro-gun statewide campaign (as did his Democratic opponent, Chris Koster, who won the NRA’s endorsement but lost the election), to take a deeper look at crime in the St. Louis metropolitan area. She suggested that it might temper his pro-gun stance that plays so well out-state. “The easy availability of firearms in a metropolitan area is a dire issue to those who have the professional responsibility to keep populations safe and alive,” Newman advised Greitens.
Women’s Voices Raised for Social Justice this week published a list of more than 230 people who have been killed by gunfire in St. Louis city and county so far this year, compiled from the Gun Violence Archive (www.gunviolencearchive.org), a resource to which Newman also directed Greitens. The youngest person killed was eight months old, and the oldest was 73 years. What we all know and what concerns us most is that most of the damage done by guns happens in urban areas like St. Louis. But, as Newman pointed out to the next governor, no zip code in the state “is immune from death and injury through careless use of firearms.” She also reminded Greitens that guns are not used to intimidate and kill people only in the streets, as happened to Sheena Greitens. The damage done with guns, Newman pointed out, “includes suicides, domestic violence incidents often killing an entire family and even little kids who have ready access to an adult’s gun and shoot themselves or someone else. In fact, Missouri was No. 1 in 2015 toddler shootings across the country.”
A powerless Democrat addressing a pro-gun governor-elect who swept to power in a landslide of victories by 2nd Amendment-worshipping Republicans, Newman presumed to delegate to Greitens some immediate legislative priorities to address gun violence, such as imposing background checks for firearm purchases and a ban of gun purchases by “domestic abusers and those on the no-fly list.” She implores Greitens to “be a hero” on these issues, but to expect a Republican leader in the current political climate to make any move against the freedom to own and fire guns – especially in Missouri, which passed a Wild West gun bill last session that was a legislative priority of the NRA – would be more in the category of improbable, courageous superhero.
Newman strikes one rhetorical note in this letter that we would advise against. She name-checks Lyda Krewson as the only “gun violence survivor” mentioned by name. Tragically, years ago, Krewson lost a husband to gun violence in front of their Central West End home, not far from where the Greitens now live. Newman cites Krewson as an alderwoman, but even the Greitens (who will soon cast their votes for St. Louis mayor) know she is a mayoral candidate. In a region where more than 230 people have been killed by gunfire this year, many families in St. Louis are gun violence victims. And though everyone of any race mourns their dead with the same depth of grief, it’s a fact that a large majority of the people killed in the St. Louis region are black people with black parents, spouses and children, so let’s not construct a special gun violence victim out of mayoral candidate Lyda Krewson.
The good news, if there is any good news amid all the suffering and grief, is that every major candidate for St. Louis mayor who has announced thus far is talking about our crime crisis in more nuanced, complex terms. Krewson is calling her crime plan a “neighborhood plan,” which is about as far from a dog whistle as a candidate can get. In late November, Krewson tweeted, “We must have a city where getting a job is easier than getting a gun.” Of course, that toned-down message was two weeks after another major candidate, Tishaura Jones, was quoted in the Post-Dispatch saying, “Nine times out of 10, if someone is picking up a paycheck, they are not picking up a gun.” But then, back in August, Lewis Reed, another major mayoral candidate, told the Post, “We shouldn’t be surprised at all the shootings when investments that need to be made haven’t been made.”
If the candidates are reusing some versions of the same lines, at least the underlying idea is to prevent crime by addressing joblessness, drug trafficking and other social crises and inequities, not merely enforce the law and punish criminals. To that end, Antonio French, another major candidate for mayor, has posted a crime plan that posts ward-by-ward crime data graphed by NextSTL to spotlight what are the highest-crime neighborhoods in the greatest need of resources to address the inter-generational poverty that spawns so much crime. Whoever wins the mayoral race would benefit from looking at French’s plan. Similarly, whoever is handed the keys to City Hall Room 200 should look at Jones’ plan to close the city’s Medium Security Institution and redirect the $16 million currently spent each year to keep it running into more proactive crime-prevention measures. One thing St. Louis will need to face in the next four years of Republicans running state and federal government: We are going to need to find creative ways to prioritize and solve our own problems – and pay for it ourselves.
