Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Different Takes: Walmart Makes Our Government Look Weak On Combating Gun Violence
Bloomberg: Walmart Puts Our Government To Shame On Guns
By one count, there have been 30 mass shootings in America since President Donald Trump took office. During that time, the Republican-controlled government hasn’t lifted a finger to end the carnage. Walmart Inc., of all things, has stepped into the breach. (Mark Gongloff, 9/4)
Los Angeles Times: Walmart Is Doing More To Combat Gun Violence Than Our Government
So it was heartening to see Walmart’s announcement Tuesday that, in its view, enough is enough. Just four days before the carnage outside the retail giant’s El Paso store, a disgruntled employee allegedly shot and killed two managers at a Walmart in Southaven, Miss., and five days after the El Paso massacre a man wearing body armor and carrying a loaded rifle and 100 rounds of ammunition entered a Missouri Walmart. He allegedly told police that he was testing his 2nd Amendment right to be armed (Missouri allows open carry of firearms). Then came the massacres in Dayton, Ohio, and Odessa, and while neither involved a Walmart store, the corporation saw them as part of a whole. “It’s clear to us,” said Walmart CEO Doug McMillon, “that the status quo is unacceptable.” (9/5)
The Washington Post: Lawmakers Who Refuse To Address Gun Violence Are Darkening American Life
Another slaughter in Texas, this time in Odessa, four hours east of El Paso, where 22 people lost their lives just four weeks prior. Together, the two death tolls contributed to an overall count of 53 murdered in mass shooting incidents in the United States this August alone. When I lived in Texas, just 10 years ago, I spent much of my time in settings like those now marked by bloodshed: at Walmarts, with their endless parking lots glazed in late summer’s heat shimmer; in the hard, hardy grass of suburban front lawns; blinking through blazing white sunlight on stretches of interstate. Back then, I didn’t think of any of those common places as locations where people are murdered at random. Now, I do. (Elizabeth Bruenig, 9/4)
The New York Times: Stop Lying About Gun Control
Beto O’Rourke has easily emerged as my favorite presidential candidate on the issue of gun control. He has done so because he is speaking openly, passionately and honestly about what he would like to do to stem our epidemic of gun violence, a stance that is surprisingly rare in my estimation. I long ago tired of hearing politicians who are supposed to be in favor of smarter gun laws and reducing American gun deaths and injuries pull their punches so as not to upset the gun lobby and gun lobbyists. (Charles M. Blow, 9/4)
