Washington Post editorial board blames 'damage done by guns' for murder spike

The Washington Post editorial board demanded Congress address the historic increase in the U.S. murder rate by implementing "sensible gun control" measures, tying the spike to increased gun purchases.

In a Wednesday editorial, the Post claimed the country had become "numb" to mass shootings and gun violence, and that Congress needed to "stop despairing over the damage done by guns and do something about it," including banning "assault weapons" and implementing universal background checks.

According to FBI data released Monday, killings in the U.S. increased nearly 30% in 2020, the biggest single-year increase on record. The data also showed that guns accounted for about 77% of the homicides. 

"The ravages of guns extend beyond those whose deaths are tallied in the annual FBI report. There are the families who must struggle with senseless loss, those who are injured by gunfire and those who witnessed the horror," The Post wrote. "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 FIVE’: MURDER AND CRIME RATES SPIKE IN DEMOCRAT-RUN CITIES - IS IT A CONTROL PLAY? 

"Meanwhile, Republican-led states have enacted laws — such as the one that went into effect in July in Tennessee that allows most adults to carry, openly or concealed, a handgun without a permit," it added, seemingly trying to link less strict gun regulations in Tennessee with the deadly shooting that took place in the state last Thursday. "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."

Stephen Gutowski, founder of the firearms news site The Reload, reacted to The Post's call to action in an extensive thread on Twitter, suggesting the paper didn't know what the gun laws around the country actually were and noting that places mentioned in the piece already had the types of laws they were calling on Congress to implement.

Speaking with Fox News Digital, Gutowski reiterated his point related to existing gun laws and slammed the media in general for creating the environment in which that mistake could be made. 

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

"This has to be one of the laziest editorials I've read in quite a while and there's very little in the way of a salient argument to engage with," he said. "On top of that, it appears The Post's editorial board isn't even familiar with the gun laws of their own city. They invoke a tragic accidental shooting in DC and immediately follow it up by suggesting universal background checks, an ‘assault weapons’ ban, and safe storage laws as a solution to America's gun-violence problem. DC, of course, already has each one of those policies in place."

"I would say the editorial board should be embarrassed by such an obvious mistake. But, in our current media climate, it seems most commentators have reached a plane of existence beyond the point where embarrassment can be felt," Gutowski added.