Memorial for the victims of Las Vegas mass shooting Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Republicans’ Responsibility for Gun Violence

After every mass shooting in America, the Republican Party mobilizes to block any legislation that might strengthen gun control. Why, then, do journalists and pundits persist in attributing the lack of commonsense regulation to political "dysfunction," rather calling a spade a spade?

BOSTON – After the mass shooting at a concert in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Sunday night, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters that, “It’s particularly inappropriate to politicize an event like this. It just happened within the last day and a half.”

With 59 dead and more than 500 injured, McConnell insisted that it was “[e]ntirely premature to be discussing about legislative solutions” to America’s gun-violence epidemic. His party’s legislative priority, he added, would continue to be tax cuts.

McConnell’s response was fully in keeping with the Republican Party’s stance on gun violence. It is disheartening, however, that none of the reporters assembled in front of McConnell so much as tried to call him out on his position.

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