For the first time in almost a century, the New York Times is publishing an editorial on its front page, attacking guns, America’s gun culture, and the lawmakers who enable it.
The last time the New York Times published a page one editorial was 1920.
On Saturday, 95 years since the Paper of Record “lamented the nomination of Warren G. Harding” on its front page, the Times will publish a call to “End the Gun Epidemic in America,” including calling for a ban on some weapons.
Labeling it “a moral outrage and national disgrace,” the Times decries “that civilians can legally purchase weapons designed to kill people with brutal speed and efficiency.”
And the Editorial Board offers push back to Second Amendment activists:
“It is not necessary to debate the peculiar wording of the Second Amendment. No right is unlimited and immune from reasonable regulation.”
The paper also calls for a ban on the deadliest of weaponry, labeling them “weapons of war, barely modified and deliberately marketed as tools of macho vigilantism and even insurrection.”
“Certain kinds of weapons, like the slightly modified combat rifles used in California, and certain kinds of ammunition, must be outlawed for civilian ownership. It is possible to define those guns in a clear and effective way and, yes, it would require Americans who own those kinds of weapons to give them up for the good of their fellow citizens.”
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The Times does not hold back much, and applauds those who, like NCRM, slammed mostly GOP politicians who offered “thoughts and prayers” after the San Bernardino attack, yet have refused to offer anything more, like a vote in favor of real gun reform.
“America’s elected leaders offer prayers for gun victims and then, callously and without fear of consequence, reject the most basic restrictions on weapons of mass killing, as they did on Thursday. They distract us with arguments about the word terrorism. Let’s be clear: These spree killings are all, in their own ways, acts of terrorism.”
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Image by Jim Sheaffer via Flickr and a CC licenseÂ