New York Post calls on US President Donald Trump to ban assault weapons
After latest mass shootings, New York paper urges President to ‘help America live without fear’.
The New York Post has called on US President Donald Trump to ban assault weapons following two mass shootings within 24 hours in the US.
Monday’s front page of the News Corp newspaper reads: ‘President Trump, America is scared and we need bold action. It’s time to...BAN WEAPONS OF WAR”. The headlines are accompanied by a picture of an assault rifle.
It is accompanied by an extensive opinion article by its editorial board about the weekend’s shootings at El Paso in Texas, and Dayton, in Ohio, as well as other similar events. The article runs across a two-page spread, accompanied by four other pages of coverage about the shootings over the weekend, in which 29 people died.
The piece by the editorial board lists all mass shootings that have taken place in recent years in the US, and President Trump’s response on social media platform Twitter on Sunday.
God bless the people of El Paso, Texas. God bless the people of Dayton, Ohio.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 4, 2019
“God bless the people of El Paso, Texas. God bless the people of Dayton, Ohio,” President Trump tweeted.
The editorial board’s piece urges the President to take action. “God save us all, sir. People all across the nation are scared; many feel like the country is spinning out of control. They’re looking to their leaders for more than prayers. America is terrified.”
They call on him 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 editorial board said.
The editorial board acknowledged that President Trump has regularly praised the Second Amendment in the US constitution, and received the National Rifle Association’s support in the 2016 race.
“But the Second Amendment leaves ample room for regulating gun rights, just as every other constitutional right has its limits,” they said.
The editorial board also noted that the NRA is “falling apart at the seams these days — with insiders profiteering from hysteria-driven fundraising finally exposed.
“Far wiser to appeal now to the (much more numerous) Americans who hunt or keep guns for self-defence but are appalled by the endless string of mass shootings.
“Come up with answers. Now. Beginning with the return of an assault-weapons ban,” the editorial board said.
The article ends by urging President Trump to do something to “help America live without fear”.
News Corp is also the publisher of The Australian.
Report on ABC’s ‘doctored audio’ scandal blames lawyers
A report has blamed ABC lawyers for failing to pass on complaints by former commando Heston Russell that extra gunshots had been edited into an ABC news report.
‘Pressure from above’: ABC executive pushed by Buttrose
Christopher Oliver-Taylor was under pressure to sack Antoinette Lattouf after Ita Buttrose made clear she was ‘deeply unhappy’ with action taken on the stand-in radio host, the Federal Court has heard.