Recent Missouri editorials

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 12

Once again, gun extremists in the General Assembly tried this session to push legislation to bar enforcement in Missouri of any federal firearms laws that they view as infringing on Second Amendment rights. In addition to reopening an argument about federalism that was settled a century and a half ago, this tone-deaf measure is an affront to all the St. Louis gun victims who’ve died because those same legislators refuse to allow even the most commonsense regulation of firearms. Luckily, the urgency of the coronavirus pandemic sidetracked their efforts - for now.

The Second Amendment’s defense of the right to bear arms is specifically predicated on the necessity of “a well-regulated Militia” for “the security of a free state.” Taken at face value, then, Missouri’s so-called Second Amendment Preservation Act would seem to be unnecessary - since, last we heard, the federal government wasn’t trying to disband the Missouri National Guard.

Of course, the gun culture warriors pushing this measure conveniently ignore half the wording of the amendment they claim to cherish. It’s unfortunate that the U.S. Supreme Court in 2008 did exactly that, ruling that the “militia” language somehow enshrines individual gun rights. Still, even that deeply flawed decision specified that government has a right to regulate guns for public safety. That caveat, too, is conveniently ignored by the gun crowd, which seems to operate on a principle of cherry-picking what it likes from founding documents and court opinions.

Through House Bill 1637, they tried it with our very form of government. America is made up of states that govern locally, under a federal government that determines national policies. Federal law is, as the Constitution puts it, “the supreme Law of the Land.” Americans can challenge it in court, or via elections, but state governments don’t get to just ignore federal laws they don’t like.

Some Missouri Republicans apparently didn’t get that memo - and they seem to have slept through the part of history class where the Confederacy lost the Civil War. That was the final word on whether states can just go their own way if they don’t like this federal law or that one. They can’t.

Sadly, the issue as it relates to guns is, for the moment, hypothetical, since federal law is almost as lax as Missouri law in addressing gun violence. Some states have enacted, for example, universal criminal background checks, but neither Jefferson City nor Washington currently abides that level of sanity regarding firearms. No wonder Missouri’s gun-death rate is well above the national average.

This legislation might sound like some doomed right-wing nuttery designed mainly for show, but a similar measure came dangerously close to becoming law a few years ago. For now, at least, the pandemic has helped ensure this nonsense goes nowhere.

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The Kansas City Star, April 14

About 50 employees in Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft’s office were told to return to their desks Monday, despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic that has now claimed at least 114 lives in the state.

“We need to be here,” Ashcroft told The Star Editorial Board Monday. He said necessary precautions - hand sanitizer, disabled water fountains, physical distancing - were put into place to protect employees who had been working from home, or were on leave.

Masks are optional. The secretary is using one.

What is Ashcroft thinking?

“Not everybody can do their job from home,” Ashcroft said, adding that an office-based “mindset” can improve workplace efficiency.

Ashcroft’s office helps supervise elections, and he said he’d be blamed if the June 2 municipal elections go wrong, and he failed to adequately prepare. Of course, it should be noted that he’ll also be blamed if an employee now gets sick with COVID-19. But the Republican secretary of state says of that prospect: “People like to play politics.”

The coronavirus pandemic is, or at least should be, above politics. And it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that growing partisan pressure to reopen the economy played at least some role in Ashcroft’s decision to call employees back, despite the fact that the stay-at-home order doesn’t expire until April 24.

That order doesn’t officially apply to Jay Ashcroft’s office, which is unfortunate. His employees can’t work in a bubble. Not only are they at risk of catching the virus from a coworker in the hallway or other common areas, they could also spread it to family members, friends, even strangers at the grocery store.

“These employees will be sharing bathrooms and different work surfaces even under the best circumstances,” Jake Hummel of Missouri’s AFL-CIO said in an email. “It seems the secretary is unnecessarily placing his employees in harm’s way.”

The secretary’s decision sends a bad signal to private businesses and workers that it’s now safe to return to the workplace. That is not the case. One widely-used model projects that deaths from the virus in Missouri won’t peak until April 29, two weeks from now.

More than 1,100 Missourians are expected to die from the disease by Aug. 4 - some 10 times the current fatality total.

It’s true that fewer Missourians are now expected to be infected with COVID-19 and die from it than once feared. That isn’t an accident. It’s precisely because of shutdown orders and quick action by local officials that the curve has flattened, leaving hospitals equipped to deal with patients and keep more people alive.

To lift those orders too quickly would not only invite a rapid return of the virus, it would also quickly negate the sacrifices Missourians have made to date.

Missourians, like all Americans, want to work. They want to enjoy time with their friends and families. They want the state to return to normal.

But they would be wrong to take Secretary Ashcroft’s misguided decision as proof that precautions are unnecessary. The general public is still barred from entering the Jefferson City building, suggesting other officials are still worried about community spread of the deadly virus.

Restrictions on business and commerce “should lift at some time,” Ashcroft said Monday, “but I don’t know when.” Missourians should hear that ambiguity, and stay at home until the coronavirus danger has passed.

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St. Joseph News-Press, April 9

You can already see the battle lines emerging over the post-crisis coronavirus response.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, seeks an international investigation into China’s role in downplaying the early spread of the virus, a cover-up with lethal results for the rest of the world. It’s fair game, but surely the senator knows his political party takes a skeptical view of justice wielded at an international level.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi formed a committee to investigate the federal response to the coronavirus. A House inquiry, too, is fair game in order to avoid past missteps, but surely Pelosi knows that a partisan circus is likely.

The time for investigations will come, but it might be best to get the virus under control first. This week, more than 8,000 American deaths were attributed to COVID-19, double the number from all of March.

To this end, Missouri’s other senator, Republican Roy Blunt, raises an issue of more pressing concern for Americans who are eager to get back to some form of normalcy.

As chairman of the Health Appropriations Committee, Blunt is urging Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to confirm that two types of COVID-19 tests will be free to every American. Right now, Mosaic Life Care said there currently are no out-of-pocket costs for COVID-19 tests at the hospital.

Blunt, along with Health Committee Chairman Sen. Lamar Alexander, sees promise in two kinds of tests, a diagnostic one to determine if someone has COVID-19 and an antibodies test that would confirm a past infection, even for people who showed no serious symptoms. That second test could suggest if someone is immune to COVID-19.

The two senators issued a joint statement that called widespread testing a key to getting the country back on its feet. A better grasp of who has COVID-19, before they enter the emergency room, would make it possible to isolate positive cases and deal with the virus in a more targeted way.

The senators also believe that the second kind of test, the one that looks for antibodies, would remove some of the skittishness that makes Americans reluctant to engage in normal social and economic activities.

“We are dealing not just with a medical issue here. We are dealing with an issue of confidence,” they said in a joint statement. “Free tests will help contain the disease and give Americans confidence that it is safe to go back to work and back to school and restart the economy.”

Some would suggest that the testing ship has sailed, but that is incorrect. Without testing, we’re flying blind, with little choice but to shut down schools, workplaces and civic facilities.

All Americans should have access to free testing, at least by August when students are ready for school, but preferably much sooner.