SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Tributes to the victims left at the shrine set up around the town's Christmas tree in Sandy Hook after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newtown, Connecticut, on December 17, 2012. (Photo: Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images)
Le Monde Editorial Says America 'Exceptional' at One 'Bloody' Thing: Mass Shootings
The French newspaper gave a searing indictment of the Republican Party's failure to back even modest gun control legislation in the United States, unmoved to act even after children are slaughtered.
May 25, 2022
An editorial published Wednesday by French daily newspaper Le Monde weighs in on the latest mass shooting in the U.S., pointing to America's familiar "cycle of despair" and directing specific blame at a Republican Party whose singular credo is "more and more guns."
Published hours after the massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, in which a gunman shot dead 19 children and two teachers, the editorial states, "If there is any American exceptionalism, it is to tolerate the fact that schools in the United States are regularly transformed into bloody shooting ranges."
The editorial board referenced other mass shootings that occurred just this month, one at a Taiwanese church in California and another at a supermarket in New York, as evidence "America is killing itself" and that Republicans are "looking the other way, ideologically complicit in one tragedy after another."
Thanks to "brainwashing" by the NRA, elected officials offer up prayers for victims while refusing to pass even "the slightest legislation" addressing gun control, the editorial asserts.
Instead, Texas--a state described as the "scene of the last bloodbath after eight other mass shootings in 13 years"--has recently passed legislation easing, not strengthing gun control.
The editorial further accuses Republicans of being "clearly unable to establish a causal link between" massive rates of gun purchases and gun deaths. "One despairs to imagine them expending the same energy to prevent killings, the perpetrators of which are overwhelmingly men, as they expend selflessly to prevent women from having control over their own bodies," it states.
It also frames as especially damning the Senate's failure in 2013, primarily due to Republican opposition, to pass modest legislation strengthening background checks in the wake of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut----a mass shooting that left 26 people dead, including 20 children between six and seven years old.
However, the editorial concludes, "there is every reason to believe that the same would be true today in this country trapped in this madness."
On January 20th, it begins...
Political revenge. Mass deportations. Project 2025. Unfathomable corruption. Attacks on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Pardons for insurrectionists. An all-out assault on democracy. Republicans in Congress are scrambling to give Trump broad new powers to strip the tax-exempt status of any nonprofit he doesn’t like by declaring it a “terrorist-supporting organization.” Trump has already begun filing lawsuits against news outlets that criticize him. At Common Dreams, we won’t back down, but we must get ready for whatever Trump and his thugs throw at us. Our Year-End campaign is our most important fundraiser of the year. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover issues the corporate media never will, but we can only continue with our readers’ support. By donating today, please help us fight the dangers of a second Trump presidency. |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
An editorial published Wednesday by French daily newspaper Le Monde weighs in on the latest mass shooting in the U.S., pointing to America's familiar "cycle of despair" and directing specific blame at a Republican Party whose singular credo is "more and more guns."
Published hours after the massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, in which a gunman shot dead 19 children and two teachers, the editorial states, "If there is any American exceptionalism, it is to tolerate the fact that schools in the United States are regularly transformed into bloody shooting ranges."
The editorial board referenced other mass shootings that occurred just this month, one at a Taiwanese church in California and another at a supermarket in New York, as evidence "America is killing itself" and that Republicans are "looking the other way, ideologically complicit in one tragedy after another."
Thanks to "brainwashing" by the NRA, elected officials offer up prayers for victims while refusing to pass even "the slightest legislation" addressing gun control, the editorial asserts.
Instead, Texas--a state described as the "scene of the last bloodbath after eight other mass shootings in 13 years"--has recently passed legislation easing, not strengthing gun control.
The editorial further accuses Republicans of being "clearly unable to establish a causal link between" massive rates of gun purchases and gun deaths. "One despairs to imagine them expending the same energy to prevent killings, the perpetrators of which are overwhelmingly men, as they expend selflessly to prevent women from having control over their own bodies," it states.
It also frames as especially damning the Senate's failure in 2013, primarily due to Republican opposition, to pass modest legislation strengthening background checks in the wake of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut----a mass shooting that left 26 people dead, including 20 children between six and seven years old.
However, the editorial concludes, "there is every reason to believe that the same would be true today in this country trapped in this madness."
An editorial published Wednesday by French daily newspaper Le Monde weighs in on the latest mass shooting in the U.S., pointing to America's familiar "cycle of despair" and directing specific blame at a Republican Party whose singular credo is "more and more guns."
Published hours after the massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, in which a gunman shot dead 19 children and two teachers, the editorial states, "If there is any American exceptionalism, it is to tolerate the fact that schools in the United States are regularly transformed into bloody shooting ranges."
The editorial board referenced other mass shootings that occurred just this month, one at a Taiwanese church in California and another at a supermarket in New York, as evidence "America is killing itself" and that Republicans are "looking the other way, ideologically complicit in one tragedy after another."
Thanks to "brainwashing" by the NRA, elected officials offer up prayers for victims while refusing to pass even "the slightest legislation" addressing gun control, the editorial asserts.
Instead, Texas--a state described as the "scene of the last bloodbath after eight other mass shootings in 13 years"--has recently passed legislation easing, not strengthing gun control.
The editorial further accuses Republicans of being "clearly unable to establish a causal link between" massive rates of gun purchases and gun deaths. "One despairs to imagine them expending the same energy to prevent killings, the perpetrators of which are overwhelmingly men, as they expend selflessly to prevent women from having control over their own bodies," it states.
It also frames as especially damning the Senate's failure in 2013, primarily due to Republican opposition, to pass modest legislation strengthening background checks in the wake of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut----a mass shooting that left 26 people dead, including 20 children between six and seven years old.
However, the editorial concludes, "there is every reason to believe that the same would be true today in this country trapped in this madness."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.