Likening the potential of teenagers currently protesting the lack of gun control in the United States with youth five decades ago whose demonstrations eventually spearheaded the end of the Vietnam War, The New York Times editorial board said the nation must heed their voices and force politicians to finally do more than mouth platitudes about taking action to end the carnage.
The board, in an editorial called "Will America Choose Its Children Over Guns?" praised the survivors of the latest school massacre in Florida for voicing their anger against "craven politicians who kneel before the National Rifle Association and its cynically fundamentalist approach to the Second Amendment" and who say they are tired of "this culture of being gunned down for no reason, and this culture of people saying, 'Oh, let's send thoughts and prayers' for three days, and then moving on."
The Times said, "It is too soon to tell if this righteous anger augurs a sustained youth movement for gun sanity, going beyond the occasional protest," but expressed hope that it would.
The editorial board stressed that "To be effective, any movement needs a realistic program, not mere emotion. Otherwise, it risks coming and going in a flash with little to show for itself."
The Times suggested that a good place to start is a tighter federal system of background checks, which "should also include reinstating a nationwide ban on assault weapons … and ending an absurd prohibition against using federal public health funds to study gun violence."
The Times said the momentum so far is good, because even President Donald Trump, who has been a steadfast defender of the NRA, has ordered that regulations be written to ban bump stocks.
But the newspaper stressed that to keep the president true to his word and the pressure on other politicians to take the correct steps, "young people channeling this angry moment [must] remain steadfast."
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