San Bernardino shooting: New York Times says politicians' prayers are not enough in front page editorial

The newspaper is joining calls for gun controls to stop the legal purchase of assault rifles

People attend a vigil for shooting victims in San Bernardino. (Getty Images)

The New York Times has run its first front page editorial for almost a century to brand US politicians’ repeated failure to tighten gun controls “a moral outrage and a national disgrace”.

The newspaper, one of the most read and well-respected titles in America, published its plea to “end the gun epidemic” today following a shooting massacre that killed 14 people in California.

Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, a married couple living in San Bernardino, carried out what the FBI said could be a terror attack using legally-purchased, .223 calibre assault rifles.

“It is a moral outrage and a national disgrace that civilians can legally purchase weapons designed specifically to kill people with brutal speed and efficiency,” the New York Times editorial said.

“These are weapons of war, barely modified and deliberately marketed as tools of macho vigilantism and even insurrection.

“America’s elected leaders offer prayers for gun victims and then, callously and without fear of consequence, reject the most basic restrictions on weapons of mass killing.”

Taking aim at the Second Amendment commonly used by the pro-gun lobby to fight the prospect of tighter controls, the newspaper said no right was “unlimited and immune from reasonable regulation”.

Calling on weapons and ammunition like that used by Farook and Malik to be outlawed for civilian ownership, the opinion piece said Americans already owning them should be prepared to give them up for the public good.

The New York Times said that although a motive is the focus of the current investigation in San Bernardino, it does not matter to the victims, as it did not matter for those killed in recent massacres in Colorado, Oregon, South Carolina, Virginia, Connecticut and “far too many other places”.

“Let’s be clear: These spree killings are all, in their own ways, acts of terrorism,” it said.

President Barack Obama has called for legislation to make it harder for criminals to obtain firearms, while calling for politicians from both the Democrat and Republican parties to support his calls for legal reforms.

But the Republican-controlled Congress has mounted heavy opposition to gun control measures as debate on one of the most contentious political issues in the US continues.

The New York Times front page was winning global support on social media this morning but libertarians were already criticising it.

Brian Doherty, a senior editor at Reason magazine, wrote: “What the Times is calling for is, beyond its countable costs in money and effort and the likely further erosion of civil liberties, also (as they surely know) calling for a massive political civil war the likes of which we haven't seen in a long time.”

It is the first time the newspaper has run an editorial on its front page since 1920, when it expressed dismay at the nomination of Warren G. Harding as the Republican presidential candidate, before he went on to win national elections.

Additional reporting by Reuters