Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat who’s staunchly advocated for gun control since a lone gunman killed more than two dozen people — mostly children — at an elementary school in his state, took to Twitter in the wake of the latest mass shooting to voice his frustration.
“Your ‘thoughts’ should be about steps to take to stop this carnage. Your ‘prayers’ should be for forgiveness if you do nothing — again,” Murphy tweeted Wednesday, hours after gunmen killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California.
The New York Daily News expressed a similar sentiment on the front page of its upcoming Thursday edition, which reads “God isn’t fixing this” in capital letters alongside images of tweets from leading Republicans who shared their “thoughts” and “prayers” for the shooting victims.
Wednesday’s San Bernardino shooting with 14 killed is the deadliest shooting since Sandy Hook, in December 2012, where 26 died. The California massacre comes less than two weeks before the three-year anniversary of the Sandy Hook. Murphy was a senator-elect and U.S. congressman representing Newtown at the time.
Murphy’s comments came amid an outpouring of “thoughts and prayers” from politicians and others online and in remarks on Wednesday.
While Democrats were quick to call for measures to address the scourge of gun violence and mass shootings in the U.S. while the suspects involved in the San Bernardino shooting were still at large, Republicans largely stuck to “thoughts and prayers.”
“Our thoughts and prayers are with #SanBernardino,” tweeted Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee.
Though President Barack Obama and others have renewed calls for gun control reforms in the wake of this and other mass shootings, Washington has repeatedly failed to pass any meaningful legislation.
Congress has failed to pass even broadly favored proposals such as expanding background checks, which a majority of Americans support, according to polls.