Mustafa Çağlayan
December 05, 2015•Update: December 05, 2015
NEW YORK
The New York Times newspaper on Saturday published an editorial on its front page for the first time in nearly a century, calling for a drastic curtailment of firearm availability in the U.S.
The op-ed, titled "End the Gun Epidemic in America", calls it a "moral outrage and national disgrace that civilians can legally purchase weapons designed to kill people with brutal speed and efficiency".
It suggests drastically reducing the number of guns and outlawing certain kinds of weapons and ammunition for civilian ownership.
"Politicians abet would-be killers by creating gun markets for them, and voters allow those politicians to keep their jobs," reads the editorial.
"It is past time to stop talking about halting the spread of firearms, and instead to reduce their number drastically -- eliminating some large categories of weapons and ammunition."
The plea came in the wake of Wednesday's mass shooting by a married couple that killed 14 victims and injured 21 others in California. Police said the suspects were armed with four guns, all of which were purchased legally.
The publisher of the newspaper, Arthur Sulzberger Jr, said in a statement that the paper's decision to place the editorial on the Page 1 aimed at delivering "a strong and visible statement of frustration and anguish about our country’s inability to come to terms with the scourge of guns”.
The last time the paper ran an editorial on its front page was in 1920, when it lambasted the nomination of Warren G. Harding as the Republican presidential candidate.
There have been at least 355 mass shootings in the U.S. since January, according to ShootingTracker.com, a website that tracks news reports on shooting incidents.
