The Washington Post Editorial Board is calling for tougher restrictions on guns.
In an opinion piece published this week, the paper’s gatekeepers argued that amidst a historic jump in murders last year, “it’s time to act on guns.”
“The FBI’s annual tabulation of crime data, released on Monday, showed that killings in the United States increased nearly 30 percent last year, the largest annual increase on record,” wrote the board.
“An additional 4,901 people were killed in 2020 compared with 2019, bringing the total to 21,500. Many factors are at play — including an unprecedented pandemic that caused economic and mental stress — but what is most striking is the undeniable role played by guns.”
SEE ALSO: Why Record-Setting Gun Sales Have Nothing To Do with Spike in Violent Crime
Below you’ll see a more complete breakdown but here is a snapshot of the weapons used:
- 8,017 were committed with handguns
- 1,732 with knives
- 657 with personal weapons
- 454 with rifles
- 203 with shotguns
The Post’s Board concludes, “Instead of putting in place sensible gun control — such as bans on assault weapons, universal background checks, safe secure laws with stiff consequences — Congress has remained gridlocked… the rising and spreading murder statistics should raise the alarm that it’s time to stop despairing over the damage done by guns and do something about it.”
Look, no one should be surprised by the spike in crime. No one. After all, in that same period of time, Left-wing politicians in major cities defunded the police, eliminated cash bail for certain crimes, instructed prosecutors to use kid gloves on offenders, emptied prisons due to”COVID-19 concerns,” labeled violent riots “mostly peaceful protests,” and sat on their hands while whole city blocks were taken over by unruly mobs.
SEE ALSO: LA Sheriff Shuts Down All Gun Stores, Releases 1,700 Inmates
Regarding that last point, you remember the “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone” aka “CHOP” in Seattle. City Mayor Jenny Durkan referred to it as a “summer of love” atmosphere. Until, of course, she had to eat crow after multiple violent crimes were caught on camera, including the fatal shooting of a 19-year-old.
But forget about all that.
The WashPo Editorial Board would have you believe that guns are mainly to blame and that the solution is, along with broadly chilling 2A rights, incremental civil disarmament, starting with AR-style rifles. Never mind that knives and personal weapons are used more often to kill people than ALL rifles combined. Never mind that “assault weapons” bans don’t reduce crime. None of that matters.
What matters is that the media elites at The Washington Post believe we as a nation have too many guns and that’s enough of a reason in their minds to justify taking yours.
CDC reported 70,000 drug overdose deaths for 2019 yet we should focus on guns pure stupidity.
I just did a little computation from that chart, and here’s the results–
murders by firearms: 4,834
murders by other means: 4,134
Seems to me the operative word here is “murder,” not guns.
The morons never, ever, want to address the Real problem– the perpetrator. But of course, we know why, don’t we?
And after blaming the object, they’ll pass another law against law abiding citizens, to which the criminals will ignore, like all the other ones. It’s like a broken record.
It’s always the inanimate object that is to blame…..never the individual. That’s been the mantra of the left for decades