Commentary roundup: What newspapers around the state are saying

San Antonio Express-News

Jan. 23 editorial, "When will America finally say, ‘Enough’?"

Where do we go from here? If the answer is the familiar debate about the Second Amendment, gun rights and reforms, then this national sorrow will continue. But if the answer is a commitment by all to begin with the goal of reducing gun violence in all forms, and to make a promise to seek out areas of compromise, then change can come.

For those infuriated by our intractable politics around gun violence, our collective inability to address its root causes, then the appropriate starting place is to maintain hope. It is paramount to maintain the hope that this nation can — and will — change, just as it is paramount to understand that bringing about this change requires a generational commitment.

There were more than 45,000 firearm deaths in 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those deaths took many forms: mass shootings, suicides, accidental shootings, domestic violence. Gun deaths have been on the rise: “The 45,222 total gun deaths in 2020 were by far the most on record, representing a 14% increase from the year before, a 25% increase from five years earlier and a 43% increase from a decade prior,” according to a Pew Research Center analysis.

The vast majority of Americans support many policies that would contribute to an overall reduction of gun violence. These include universal background checks for all gun sales, the creation of a federal database to track gun sales and even a ban on assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines. Safe storage laws and red flag laws would save lives. So, too, would additional training and licensing requirements.

The Second Amendment is not without limits. As Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in the 2008 Heller decision, “Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited. (It is) not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.”

A mass shooting should never happen, but in the United States mass shootings are routine. Our hearts break for the victims and their loved ones, just as our heart breaks for a nation that has failed to address something so horrific and preventable. But we refuse to accept this reality as the status quo.

— San Antonio Express-News Editorial Board

Houston Chronicle

Jan. 23 editorial, "Does Texas torture prisoners?"

Early this month in Texas, some 300 prisoners in solitary confinement initiated a hunger strike protesting the state’s use of the practice. While their numbers have dwindled since the protest launched, their cause is no less strong. Prisoners should not, the strikers argued, be held in isolation indefinitely, and gang affiliation alone should not prompt their segregated confinement. And the state needs to help ensure that those in isolation have a structure to transition back into a general population that doesn't require them to incriminate themselves or others. The prisoners have complained that in addition to the roughly 22 hours a day they are confined alone, they sometimes have access to a shower only once a week and often don't get recreation time. In California, the Tribune noted, prisoners secured a victory in a 2015 court settlement after a hunger strike two years earlier and “prisoner-led litigation.”

Bills filed this legislative session once again give Texas lawmakers the chance to reform the state’s solitary practices on their own, before any new litigation is filed. One would restrict the use and time length of isolation, and another would study the mental health effects of administrative segregation itself.

— Houston Chronicle Editorial Board

Dallas Morning News

Jan. 24 editorial, "Why water down a proposed ethics rule for Texas prosecutors?"

A committee of the State Bar of Texas has proposed a new ethics rule requiring prosecutors to take action when they discover evidence that someone may have been wrongfully convicted.

But after more than a year of debate, the proposed rule is disappointing. It’s been gutted of its original strength and falls short of what prosecutors should be morally obligated to do.

In June, we supported the work of the bar’s Committee on Disciplinary Rules and Referenda to take up this issue. Back then the panel was considering a new rule requiring prosecutors to not only disclose “new and credible information” creating a “reasonable likelihood” of a wrongful conviction to the appropriate court and defense lawyer, but also to investigate or make efforts to “cause an investigation” of the case.

The proposal was patterned after a model rule of the American Bar Association and similar to that already adopted by some other states. Violation would subject a prosecutor to an ethics violation, resulting in possible sanctions or even disbarment.

But over the summer, the Texas District and County Attorneys Association mounted opposition, complaining that the new requirements to investigate were unworkable, especially those in small, less-wealthy counties. The agreed-upon rule, published this month in the Texas Bar Journal for the public comment, omitted any duty for them to do so.

No duty for a prosecutor to investigate whether someone was wrongly convicted in the face of credible evidence that he or she was? That’s a shame.

Prosecutors are agents of justice, not members of a team looking to score convictions. By watering down the proposed new rule, the committee backed down under pressure and made it easier for the wrongly convicted to unjustly stay behind bars.

— Dallas Morning News Editorial Board

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Jan. 22 editorial, "Confederate day honors traitors who fought for slavery. Texas Legislature must dump it."

It's a measure of progress that few Texans celebrate Confederate Heroes Day. But there it is, a stain on the calendar that pops up every Jan. 19. It's too late for 2022, but the Legislature has a chance to make this the last time Texas suffers this embarrassment by eliminating the holiday.

There's not much to the day, in terms of ceremony or recognition. Few would miss it; the fact that it remains is a testament to a handful of noisy holdouts who would make a fuss, something every politician instinctively tries to avoid. The state doesn't even suspend business for this tainted day.

The fact that few even realize the holiday exists, though, doesn't justify leaving it on the books. It is not harmless. The state is honoring those who rebelled against the United States, those who supported the cause of enslaving fellow humans. Black Texans in particular are insulted by this, but all Texans who also love being Americans and recognize the true, ugly history of the Confederacy's rebellion suffer when the state recognizes traitors.

Perhaps that label strikes some as too strong. But the actual history of the Confederacy, not the gauzy portrayals used to justify civil-rights abuses for a century after the war, must be faced directly. The Civil War was necessary to preserve the American union and ensure it could go forward without the shame of slavery. Any talk about states' rights or maintaining a way of life is an effort to obscure reality.

Self-styled "patriots" who revere the American founding and the Constitution should take as much offense at honoring the Confederacy as anyone. It's anti-American to revere the rebellion.

— Fort Worth Star-Telegram Editorial Board

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Austin American-Statesman Commentary Roundup: Jan. 29, 2023