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Missouri, she knew, has among the weakest gun laws in the country. Conversely, it has the fourth-highest rate of gun deaths per 100,000 people.

As it says atop the page on the Everytown for Gun Safety website that tracks these things: In the site’s rankings, the states with the toughest gun laws have the lowest gun death rates. Missouri, ranked 41st weakest in gun safety laws, is among the 10 states that are both lowest in that category and conversely have among the highest gun-death rates.

It’s no accident that in the case of last month’s shooting at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School, the system and its weak laws failed student Alexzandria Bell and teacher Jean Kuczka.

“The weak laws in the state enabled this,” says Watts, the founder of , the growing grassroots gun-safety organization that is having success changing state and federal laws. “If we look at what happened in St. Louis, this was a situation where at every stage, this shooter should have been stopped.”

At first, the system worked. When Orlando Harris tried to buy an AR-15 from a licensed gun dealer, he was foiled by a federal background check. But because Missouri doesn’t have universal background checks, he was able to later buy the gun from a private dealer.

When Harris’ family became suspicious of his behavior, caused by mental health issues, they called St. Louis police. But because Missouri doesn’t have a red-flag law that clearly allows for a gun removal in such a situation, they were unable to secure the weapon. And because Missouri lawmakers last year passed a federal gun-law nullification bill, local police were hesitant to confiscate the weapon, even though the department had been notified that Harris previously failed a background check.

More than many other school shootings, the one in St. Louis checks all the boxes, Watts says. The family did the right thing. The school, with its locked doors and multiple security officers, was prepared. Police did everything right. And, still, two innocent people were slain.

“At the end of the day,” Watts says, “Missouri lawmakers have allowed unfettered easy access to weapons of war, and that’s why this horrific and preventable tragedy occurred.”

The tragedy is compounded because this is not the Missouri that Watts used to know.

One the nation’s foremost gun-safety advocates graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1994. She began her professional career working in St. Louis for Monsanto and other large corporations. At the time, Missouri had strong gun laws and lower gun-death rates. It was also a political bellwether, the sort of state that during presidential years was seen as an independent-minded place and a good predictor of where elections were going.

But Missouri has since turned a deep shade of political red, and the turn to extremism coincides with the constant reduction in gun safety laws, beginning with the repeal in 2007 of a law requiring a permit to buy a handgun. As someone who writes all too frequently about the tragedy of gun violence, it is frustrating, I shared with Watts this week. I feel like I am banging my head against an immovable brick wall.

“I understand that it can feel hopeless,” Watts says. “But I think cynicism is often an excuse for inaction. Policy should be made based on data, and the data shows us what saves lives.”

Even in Missouri, where Republican lawmakers are headed the wrong way on guns, there is progress. Four state representatives are Moms Demand members who turned their activism to action. And as sad as the cause is, states that suffer tragic school shootings often head in the right direction toward gun safety in future legislative sessions.

“We are winning,” Watts says of the gun-safety movement.

She pointed to the federal legislation passed this year, the 19 states that have passed red flag laws and the 30 states that have made it possible for police to keep guns in domestic violence cases.

“Politics is cyclical,” she says. “Lawmakers need to look at the data to see what will save the most lives. Parents are never going to be desensitized to fearing for their kids’ safety.”