St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones (D) has come under scrutiny over her professed support of gun control after a records request released thousands of her personal text messages, which included one where she ostensibly admitted that gun control doesn’t lower crime.
Now, her office is conducting damage control, contending that the messages were taken out of context.
“Chicago has strict gun laws as well but that doesn’t deter gun violence,” Jones reportedly texted in a group chat to her father, Virvus Jones, and advisor Richard Callow on March 21, KSDK reported. “It’s about investing in the people.”
Last week, thousands of Jones’ texts from her personal cellphone were publicly released following Sunshine Act requests from KSDK and the St. Louis Business Journal. Those were filed to find out about her communications regarding her meddling in the political appointment process following Kim Gardner’s stepping down in May as St. Louis circuit attorney.
BREAKING: St Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones admits in released text messages that Chicago’s “strict gun laws” don’t deter gun violence. pic.twitter.com/5EgfSGehZK
— American Firearms Association (@2A_Freedom) July 6, 2023
Jones has been a staunch proponent of gun control, standing solidly by President Biden in his efforts to abridge the Second Amendment rights of Americans. Her comments following a mass shooting in St. Louis last month that killed one and left 11 others injured stick out like a sore thumb now.
“Our state’s lax gun laws make our challenge even more difficult,” Jones commented in June after the shooting, according to Fox News. “The legislature’s lack of action on gun safety laws encourages the proliferation of guns on our streets and puts our responding officers directly in harm’s way.”
The mayor also grandstanded by joining other Democrat-controlled cities across the nation in declaring June 3 as “Gun Violence Awareness Day.” She contended that the Senate “must protect our families” by “expanding background checks to all gun sales, regulating assault weapons, and passing a federal red flag law.”
There was also a second text to her father and Callow that discussed how Newark, New Jersey, has similar demographics to St. Louis, but had a lot fewer murders. She pointed out that Newark’s investment in violence prevention programs made a difference.
Sunshine Law Exposes STL Mayor’s Hateful Texts@janedueker reacts to @saintlouismayor Tishaura Jones calling her a “b****” in recently released texts
FULL CHAT https://t.co/n0MNVEI0fN
24/7 LIVESTREAM https://t.co/dPfkr1AA18#stl #newstalkstl #tishaurajones #janedueker pic.twitter.com/uVaPVhdDRI
— NewsTalkSTL (@NewstalkSTL) July 11, 2023
“Newark, NJ has the same size population, same size police force, and similar racial demographics, yet had 50 murders in 2022,” she argued according to KSDK.”I visited these programs first hand and I know that they work. We just need the will…”
The St. Louis Police Department reported that the city recorded 200 homicides in 2022, 201 in 2021, and 263 in 2020. It has one of the highest rates of murder in the nation, joining Chicago and Baltimore in that unenviable category.
KSDK reported that the mayor’s office went into “damage control mode” following the release of the text messages. A spokesman released a statement attempting to clarify the mayor’s stance on gun control.
“Gun laws are just one part of the solution,” Jones spokesman Nick Desideri asserted. “There’s a difference between deterring behavior and making it harder to get firearms and weaponry; for example, there’s no doubt that gun laws in the blue region around Newark help reduce violence as opposed to here.”
She said the quiet part out loud.
— RedWaveNormalGuy (@RedWaveCanoer) July 10, 2023
In other text messages, Jones seemed to support gun control.
“We have way too many guns on our streets and no way to take them away,” she lamented in a text message on May 10, according to KSDK.
Jones also mocked Republican state Sen. Cindy O’Laughlin in a text for calling on city leaders to emphasize education, employment training, and economic development to reverse crime trends in the city.
“St. Louis needs to clean up its act in many ways. It starts with reducing crime. We are also working to improve our schools statewide and there’s no better place to start than in St. Louis. The costs of crime and an unskilled workforce is costing the entire state in many ways,” O’Laughlin wrote for The Missouri Times.
It’s the first time honest and St. Louis mayor have been uttered in the same sentence.
— Mick, just Mick ✝ (@veatchme) July 8, 2023
“I’m hopeful that the folks that have decided to remain in the City of St. Louis, despite the rampant crime, will choose more wisely when it is time to elect a new prosecutor,” she continued, referring to Gardner.
Jones claimed that she was basically saying, “Thanks for staying in STL even tho we’re responsible for the horrific amount of guns on your streets.”
Desideri tweeted a message from Jones that the texts were released due to an “honest mistake.”
“I’ve never been one to hide my feelings,” he tweeted for his boss. “Through an honest mistake, text messages between my family and close friends were released to the public. Sometimes my words can be terse, and my text messages speak for themselves. I understand the impact of some of my comments, and will contact the relevant parties to ensure productive dialogue moving forward.”
ICYMI: Statement from @saintlouismayor ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/2BSK1Numvn
— Nick Desideri (@NickDesideri) July 8, 2023
After speaking at a crime summit with other county law enforcement officials in Ferguson, St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell rushed to Jones’ defense.
“If you take someone’s text messages, you don’t get the full context of what they mean,” Bell remarked according to KSDK. “And I’ve talked to Mayor Tishaura about this issue a lot of times. And she believes in common sense gun safety laws, just as I do.”
Usually, when materials are released like this they are reviewed first, but in this case, they were all released in a 135-page PDF document, according to KSDK. A couple of days after that PDF was made public, it was replaced with a shorter redacted version, but it was already too late and the text messages got out into the wild much to the chagrin of St. Louis’ mayor.
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