Prior to the police revealing Thursday that a shooting spree this week in California was likely the work of a radicalized terrorist and his wife, the New York Times was already off and running, demanding that lawmakers enact stricter gun laws.
“There will be post-mortems and an official search for a ‘motive’ for this latest gun atrocity, as if something explicable had happened. The ultimate question grows with each new scene of carnage: Are these atrocities truly beyond the power of government and its politicians to stop?” the newspaper’s editorial board asked.
“That tragically has been the case as political leaders offer little more than platitudes after each shootout, while the nation is left to numbly anticipate the next killing spree,” the added.
On Wednesday, two suspects, Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, 27, stormed the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, Calif., killing 14 and injuring 21.
When the suspects entered the state-run facility for persons with mental disabilities, they were heavily armed with rifles, handguns and improvised explosive devises, law enforcement officials revealed not long after the massacre. Farook and Malik were later shot and killed after leading the police on a high-speed chase.
A search of the now-deceased couples’ home produced 2,000 9-millimeter handgun rounds, 2,500 .223 caliber rounds, and 12 IEDs, authorities revealed Thursday. The suspected shooters were also apparently looking at Islamic State propaganda prior to Wednesday’s assault, according to CBS News.
Investigators believe that Farook had been radicalized by Islamic extremists.
But rather than wait for these facts to emerge, the Times’ editorial board decided instead to pound away at the Second Amendment, demanding that Congress do something to address gun violence.
“Those who reject sensible gun controls will say anything to avoid implicating the growth in the civilian arsenal,” the board wrote, taking a shot at GOP lawmakers who’ve suggested in the wake of mass shootings that the nation at long last address mental health problems.
“This is the familiar line trotted out by Republican politicians after every massacre, as if unfettered access to high-powered weaponry — which they and the gun lobby have made possible — is not a factor in this national catastrophe. Congress’s Republican leaders are betting they can brazenly go through another election cycle without enacting gun safety laws,” the Times said.
“Congress has allowed the domestic gun industry to use assorted loopholes to sell arsenals that are used against innocent Americans who cannot hide. Without firm action, violent criminals will keep terrorizing communities and the nation, inflicting mass death and damage across the land,” they added.
Republicans have argued that some of the gun laws being proposed would not have prevented the reportedly radicalized terrorist and his wife from carrying out their attack Wednesday.
