Following Texas shooting, Republicans are 'failing' at 'protecting children from harm': LA Times

The Los Angeles Times editorial board claimed "mostly Republicans" have been showing "cruel indifference" towards children by not coming up with gun control, fighting climate change, and refusing to wear masks and get vaccinated against COVID-19.

Motivated by last week’s horrific school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, the editorial board’s Tuesday piece rounded up all the ways that politicians – again, mainly Republicans – have been endangering children. 

The piece began, "Children in the United States today live in a country where their lives, well-being and future are of little concern to many of the adults with the power and responsibility to protect them."

"It’s not just the acceptance of gun violence and the cowardly refusal to do anything to stop it. So many politicians in our country — mostly, but not all, Republicans — show cruel indifference to many other forces that hurt children, including poverty and the climate crisis," the board added. 

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The editorial board's claims echo recent media assaults against Second Amendment supporters' hatred of children. Last week, a Washington Post columnist accused gun rights proponents of contributing to America's "child sacrifice."

The LA Times slammed Republicans, claiming, "Their actions show how little they care about the world they are leaving to future generations and how miserably they are failing at performing the most basic task of any guardian: protecting children from harm."

The piece then enumerated the ways these politicians are failing as guardians. It started with the coronavirus pandemic, the editors claimed. 

"It was the failure of adults in elected office to take an immediate and coordinated approach to contain the coronavirus, and the refusal of many so-called grown-ups to do something as simple as wear masks and get a vaccine, that led to wave after wave of infections that have killed 1 million people in the U.S," the wrote. 

Though children weren’t killed off by the virus in large numbers, the board wrote that many "lost parents, grandparents and other family members. Their education was a casualty too, with academic achievement and mental health suffering from remote learning and school closures that went on for far too long."

The next parental failure, attributed to Republicans "mostly," was inaction on climate change.  

"Those in power are doing practically nothing to slash air pollution that damages kids’ lungs and threatens to leave them and future generations with a ruined planet," the LA Times wrote. 

Even pro-life politicians somehow manifest this cruel indifference toward harm against children, according to the paper. 

"The Supreme Court appears poised to take away abortion rights and the ability of people to decide when and whether to bring a baby into this troubling world. But once children are born, too many elected leaders seem to have no interest in their welfare," the editors wrote. 

The board's claim referenced the recent leak of the Supreme Court draft opinion signaling the potential end of Roe v. Wade. Mainstream media outlets have decried what was revealed in the leak, saying it could lead to America becoming a "dystopian society."

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The lack of gun control represented the most negligent actions of these politicians, the board wrote. 

"Most painful of all, some politicians have worked to allow virtually unfettered access to guns, giving just about anyone the ability to kill our children at school, church or synagogue, at the supermarket, the mall or at home," it read.

In the wake of the recent shootings in Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas, a variety of media hit pieces have claimed that Republican lawmakers' inaction on guns have greatly contributed to these mass shootings. One New York Times columnist claimed Republicans' refusal to enact gun control have turned America into a "killing field."

The piece then hit politicians for offering thoughts and prayers and ideas on curbing mental illness or fortifying school security.

"Once again, too many leaders’ response to another massacre has been tragically insufficient: to offer prayers and condolences," the piece read. "To call for safety drills. To blame mental illness."

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"Parents should be able to tell their children that they will be safe and believe that there is a limit to the amount of violence that U.S. leaders will tolerate," the piece concluded. "But we can’t. And that’s the most helpless feeling of all."