Rupert Murdoch's New York Post urges Trump: 'Ban Assault Weapons Now'

Rupert Murdoch embraces President Trump in 2017

(Image credit: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images)

published 5 August 2019

The murders of at least 29 people and injury of 50 more in two mass shootings over the weekend prompted an unusually serious and somewhat surprising meeting of the editorial minds at New York's rival tabloids on Monday. The more liberal New York Daily News used Monday's front-page real estate to focus on the gun used in the Dayton, Ohio, fatal shooting of nine people by a 24-year-old white male.

The more conservative New York Post, owned by Rupert Murdoch, focused on the mass shooting in El Paso by a 21-year-old white male — and it called on President Trump to "ban assault weapons now."

"Two mass shootings within 24 hours in El Paso and Dayton, days after the Garlic Festival killings," the Post said in Monday's front page editorial. "Three months after Virginia Beach, six months after Aurora, nine months after Thousand Oaks, 10 months after Tree of Life, 15 months after Santa Fe HS, 18 months after Parkland, and in the wake of larger horrors like the Vegas concert and Pulse nightclub massacres." Trump tweeted "God bless the people of El Paso, Texas. God bless the people of Dayton, Ohio," the Post notes, adding:

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God save us all, sir. People all across the nation are scared; many feel like the country is spinning out of control. They're looking to their leaders for more than prayers. America is terrified.President Trump, you are positioned to assuage that fear. On gun control, you are a pragmatic centrist. ... Come up with answers. Now. Beginning with the return of an assault-weapons ban. [New York Post]

The editorial urged Trump to ignore the NRA, which is "falling apart at the seams these day," and "appeal now to the (much more numerous) Americans who hunt or keep guns for self-defense but are appalled by the endless string of mass shootings." Read the entire editorial at the New York Post.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.