Both editorial boards at the New York Times and USA Today did what President Obama suggested last week, after the shooting in Roseburg, Ore., that left 10 dead, including the gunman.
“Well, this is something we should politicize,” Obama said Thursday. “It is relevant to our common life together, to the body politic.”
Obama added, “[W]hether you are a Democrat or a Republican or an independent, when you decide to vote for somebody, are making a determination as to whether this cause of continuing death for innocent people should be a relevant factor in your decision.”
Republicans and conservative commentators have criticized Obama for publicly admitting that politics should be injected into the tragedy less than 24 hours after it occurred. But in the days after, the Times and USA Today hit lawmakers in Congress for failing to pass new gun-restriction laws.
“The contrast could not be greater between the bromide-driven slate of Republican candidates promising thoughts and prayers after ‘this senseless tragedy’ and President Obama in his understandable fury and near despair over the political cowering to the gun industry and its lobbyists,” said the Times on Friday.
The paper credited the 2016 Democratic presidential candidates for having “not ducked the issue” on gun restrictions and said the GOP White House hopefuls “should not be allowed to retreat” behind the suggestion that mass shootings are the result of mental instability rather than easy access to guns.
USA Today on Sunday similarly called for more gun regulation. “The most basic, common-sense strategy is expanding background checks to include virtually all sales of guns, not just those sold by federally licensed dealers,” the paper said as it hit “spineless lawmakers” in Congress who have not passed comparable legislation.
“Gun rights advocates can always point to some flaw in whatever sensible measure is debated or passed, or argue that it would not have stopped some particular gunman from some particular mass killing,” USA Today said. “But just because you can’t prevent every mass shooting doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to stop any of them.”
