The tragic shooting massacre Wednesday in San Bernardino, California, was met with a mixture of grief and righteous indignation from a number of prominent news organizations and cultural influencers on social media.
The mass shooting killed 14 people and wounded 17 others inside the Inland Regional Center, a social services agency 55 miles outside of Los Angeles. Two suspects -- identified as Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27 -- were killed in a shootout with police hours after the shooting. The shooters' motive remains unclear, but the incident has reignited the debate about American gun culture and the proliferation of mass shootings.
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The deluge of calls for prayer from politicians, especially those currently running for president, in the aftermath of the shooting provoked the ire of publications like the New York Daily News. "God Isn't Fixing This," read the tabloid's cover headline Thursday morning. House Speaker Paul Ryan, Sen. Ted Cruz, Sen. Rand Paul and Sen. Lindsey Graham's condolence tweets were featured, with the quote: “As latest batch of innocent Americans are left lying in pools of blood, cowards who could truly end gun scourge continue to hide behind meaningless platitudes.”
Despite a fairly conservative reputation, the newspaper has consistently taken a pro-gun control advocacy stance on its front page:
The Daily News' rival paper, The New York Post, initially took a more provocative approach, emphasizing the Muslim faith of the shooting suspects:
The Post printed a less incendiary cover as well:
The Los Angeles Times published a column that also criticized politicians for their inaction on gun control, along with a striking image of the American flag with handguns and rifles in place of the stars and stripes.
"This is not only the definition of insanity, it is also the result of cowardly political pandering on the part of Republicans who care more about pleasing the extremist leaders of the gun lobby than taking even the most modest steps to protect U.S. citizens from angry, disturbed people with easy access to weapons," wrote David Horsey in the LA Times.
Others lamented the frequency of mass shootings this year and what they see as a misrepresentation of the Second Amendment.
And, internationally the disconnect between the U.S and the rest of the world when it comes to mass shootings: