Shunning Gun Control, Helping Terrorists - NYT Editorial Board

[DonViejo]

By THE EDITORIAL BOARDJUNE 12, 2017

When knife wielding terrorists struck in London this month, President Trump expressed odd satisfaction about one aspect of the carnage. “Do you notice we are not having a gun debate right now?” he tweeted. “That’s because they used knives and a truck!”

The president’s triumphal note completely overlooked the fact that Britain, unlike the United States, settled its gun debate emphatically decades ago in favor of civilian safety and tight controls. The difference in the two nations’ gun homicides is stark. The gun death rate in America is 25 times higher than other high-income nations, like Britain.

As the candidate of the National Rifle Association, however, Mr. Trump obviously prefers to discourage any debate in this country about the lethal role played by easily obtainable guns in the terrorist threat that preoccupies him.

In his obligation to protect the public, President Trump would do well to note that the nation’s loophole-ridden gun laws are hailed by the Islamic State as a pro-mayhem advantage. They are described in how-to detail in the propaganda magazine Rumiyah that ISIS publishes for potential terrorists.

There, readers are informed, entirely accurately, that in America identification requirements are virtually nonexistent for buying military-style weapons from dealers online or at weekend gun shows where there is no federal jurisdiction.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/12/opinion/shunning-gun-control-helping-terrorists.html