‘Do Something’: Washington Post Shames Mitch McConnell with Full-Page Gun Control Op-Ed

On Wedneday the Washington Post ran a full-page editorial designed to pressure Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) into passing gun control.

The editorial, titled, “Do Something, Mr. McConnell,” begins by listing the victims of the 1999 Columbine High School attack then weaves its way to today, listing other high profile shootings along the way.

The Post editorial board asked, “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?”

They continued, “Would any volume of bloodshed convince the Kentucky Republican that Congress faces a moral imperative to act? Thirty-eight people were slain in three such shootings in August — in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, as well as West Texas — and still Senate Republicans and President Trump refuse to act.”

They then list the names of victims, beginning with those killed in the 1999 Columbine attack and continuing through 28 others, ending with the August 4, 2019, Dayton, Ohio, attack. They do not mention that at least 20 of examples they provided were ones in which the guns used in the attacks were acquired legally and two were attacks attacks in which stolen and/or borrowed guns were used. That means the universal background check bill McConnell is being pressured to pass would have been powerless to stop those 22 attacks.

The Post also lists the April 3, 2009, Birmingham, New York, immigration services shooting. Everytown for Gun Safety reports that the crime was carried out by a man with a New York pistol license and that guns he used were “registered” under his license.

The bottom line is that the Post is using myriad examples that gun control would not have stopped in hopes of pressuring McConnell into supporting gun control.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.