The New York Times followed up on a historic gun violence front-page editorial with another sharp critique of Republicans.
Headlined, “The Republican Fear of Facts on Guns,” the Times’ editorial board ripped Republican presidential candidates for “callously ducking” the issue of gun violence compared to their Democratic counterparts.
“The Republican candidates are callously ducking the issue,” the board wrote, adding that “among the recent casualties of such silence” was a congressional bill that Republican lawmakers blocked that would’ve lifted a ban on federal research into gun violence.
The Times ripped the lawmakers for “leaving intact an anti-science smoke screen that has helped the industry and its lobbyists deny and dispute the facts of the gun violence that takes more than 30,000 lives a year.”
The editorial goes on to invoke the tobacco and auto industry, posing the question on what people would think if lawmakers blocked research into cigarette deaths or unsafe cars.
The paper went on to report on the findings of previous studies of gun violence that show the economic toll of gun violence, totaling $8.6 billion in annual expenses for emergency and medical care.