Washington Post editorial lists mass shooting victims in call for McConnell to ‘do something’

In the wake of a recent spate of mass shootings, The Washington Post editorial board is calling for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to take action on gun control when the upper chamber returns from its summer recess. 

{mosads}The board published a piece on Tuesday that listed the victims from a number of mass shootings that have occurred since the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado left 15 people dead, including the perpetrators.

Pointing to massacres, including the most recent mass shooting that occurred in West Texas last weekend, the board pleaded with McConnell to take up legislation to address gun violence. 

“Do something, Mr. McConnell,” the newspaper’s print headline reads.  

.@WashingtonPost is running a full-page editorial in Wednesday’s paper. It’s a message to @senatemajldr: “When the Senate returns from its Labor Day recess, it must act on guns.” pic.twitter.com/avlbRPyfm6

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) September 4, 2019

“What if there was a mass shooting in the United States not once or twice or four or six times monthly, but every single day, a big one, the kind that electrifies social media and squats for days on Page 1 — would that be enough to move Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell from his insistent inertia on gun safety?” the board asks.

“Would any volume of bloodshed convince the Kentucky Republican that Congress faces a moral imperative to act?”

The board then calls out President Trump and Senate Republicans for refusing to act following a month in which 38 people were slain in mass shootings.

“No, no single law would end gun violence. But there are reasonable, obvious measures that would help,” the board writes, before urging McConnell to consider banning the “sale of military-grade assault weapons.”

“Unneeded by civilians, they are a blight on the nation, their ready availability a national disgrace. Eliminating them would slow the growth of this list. It would save lives,” the board writes.  

August shootings in El Paso and Odessa, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, have led to renewed pleas from Democratic lawmakers for the U.S. to take legitimate action on gun violence. 

Following the most recent incident, Trump said that he was in talks with Congress about measures to stem gun violence. But he added that the shooting “hasn’t changed anything” related to the discussions.

McConnell said Tuesday that Trump’s support would be critical for whether the Senate voted on a bill on gun reform. 

“If the president is in favor of a number of things that he has discussed openly and publicly and I know that if we pass it, it will become law, I’ll put it on the floor,” he said during a radio interview with conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt.