Full ban of ‘weapons of war’ is a ‘good place to restart’ gun debate: Washington Post

After seven were killed and 38 more injured in a mass shooting in Highland Park during an Independence Day parade, The Washington Post editorial board on Tuesday argued for a full ban on assault weapons.

"Police said Tuesday that they think Crimo legally purchased his weapon, described as “similar to an AR-15,” and randomly fired at the crowd with no apparent motive," The Washington Post reported. "A second rifle was found in his car, police said."

The newspaper was dumbfounded that the country allows the massacres to continue.

"Once again, an angry young man with a high-powered rifle wreaks bloody havoc on an American community. Once again, heartbroken families must plan funerals for loved ones. Once again, something so simple — like going to church or attending school and now watching a parade — is added to the pleasures of life that can no longer be taken for granted. And once again, we must ask why we allow this madness to continue. How many more families and communities have to be needlessly ripped apart before something is finally done about the weapons that make it obscenely easy to kill the most people in the shortest period of time?" the editorial board wrote.

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Victims in the shooting ranged in age from 8 to 88.

"The ease of acquiring these weapons of war — and make no mistake, war is what the designers of these weapons envisioned — is by now, after Columbine, Sandy Hook, Parkland, Las Vegas and countless other mass shootings, a sadly familiar story. That the back-to-back shootings in May at a grocery store in Buffalo and at an elementary school in Uvalde, Tex., were allegedly committed by 18-year-olds who had no problem strolling into gun stores and leaving with weapons that would be used to kill 31 people should have been a call to action for Congress," the editorial board wrote. "Instead, the regulation of assault weapons was not even allowed on the table as a package of moderate gun and school safety measures was negotiated by a bipartisan group of senators and signed into law."

The editorial concluded that "Banning assault weapons is a good place to restart the conversation."

However, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said at an event in Kentucky that the bipartisan bill had addressed the problem.

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“I think yesterday’s shooting is another example of what the problem is,” McConnell said. “The problem is mental health and these young men who seem to be inspired to commit these atrocities. So I think the bill that we passed targeted the problem.”

Congress is scheduled to return from vacation next week.