The United States continues to reel from the two most recent mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, killing a combined 30 people. The shootings were the 249th and 250th mass shootings in 216 days in the United States.
As is common in the wake of mass shootings in the United States, Americans across the country are calling for Congress to pass common sense gun reform to curtail the epidemic of gun violence in the country.
But the outcry is coming from some unexpected corners this time.
The Rupert Murdoch-owned New York Post is one of those.
The famously right-wing paper dedicated its entire front page to call on President Donald Trump to ban "weapons of war [a widely shared earlier version read: "BAN ASSAULT WEAPONS"]."
New York Post
The editorial begs the President to take action:
"America is terrified. President Trump, you are positioned to assuage that fear. On gun control, you are a pragmatic centrist, someone who knows there is a vast majority of Americans who are not to the extreme left or right on this issue. They just want the killings to stop."
The piece goes on to assure that the Second Amendment leaves plenty of room for regulation, and offers suggestions for bipartisan solutions before issuing one final plea:
Our Founding Fathers gave us the right to bear arms in a time of muskets. They did not foresee a time when one 21-year-old could kill 20 people in the span of minutes thanks to poisonous beliefs and an assault weapon.It does not have to be this way. It should not have to be this way. Mr. President, do something — help America live without fear."
The paper is just one of the many voices calling for Congress to act on gun reform passed by the house over 100 days ago.
Sadly, it's not the first time that the post has called for gun reform on its front page. It did so after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting last year, which killed 17 people and spurred the March for Our Lives movement.
The New York Post is owned by Rupert Murdoch, who also owns Fox News. Many called on Murdoch to endorse similar views across his Conservative content.
In tweets addressing the shootings, President Donald Trump expressed openness to expanding background checks on assault weapons, but proposed marrying it to anti-immigrant legislation. The El Paso shooter railed against the "Hispanic invasion of Texas" in his racist manifesto, echoing anti-immigrant sentiments expressed by Trump and his supporters.
