‘Make It Stop’: Boston Globe tweets every mass shooting victim since 2004

As the national debate over gun control rages in the wake of the massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., the Boston Globe has published a powerful Thursday front-page editorial calling for a ban on assault weapons.

The headline: “Make It Stop.”

“Greed, legislative cowardice, advanced technology — that is how we got here,” the paper’s editors wrote in an op-ed. “The United States has been pummeled by gun violence since the assault weapons ban expired in 2004. This year, mass shootings have already claimed 61 lives. One class of gun, semiautomatic rifles, is largely responsible. But this nation cannot be a hostage of fear. We can make it stop.”

On Sunday, 50 people, including the gunman, were killed and 53 others wounded at the Pulse Orlando nightclub in the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, reigniting calls for gun law reforms. The Globe pointed out more mass shootings are inevitably going to occur during the next president’s tenure.

“We do not yet know who will be the next president of the United States,” the op-ed continued. “But there’s nearly a mathematical certainty that the person to hold that office will be called on to console a grieving nation after another mass shooting. It is so expected that you could draft the speech today, predict the response, and anticipate the legislative paralysis that would surely ensue.”

In 1994, Congress voted to prohibit the sale of certain assault weapons anywhere in the United States, but the ban expired in 2004. Since then, there have been 47 mass shootings in which a total of 411 people were killed, according to the paper, while there have been no successful attempts to reinstate it.

Online, the Boston Globe’s Twitter account began tweeting out the names of those killed in mass shootings since the ban was lifted. The accompanying hashtag — #MakeItStop — was soon trending on Twitter.

The digital version of the paper’s op-ed included a counter illustrating how many shots a person could have fired from a semi-automatic rife “since you began reading this article.”

“The AR-15 assault rifle has the speed, accuracy, and power of no prior civilian weapon, shooting up to 45 rounds per minute,” the paper said.

It also included the names and contact information for six U.S. senators — five Republicans and one Democrat — who “stand in the way” of gun reform.

The op-ed came a day after Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy launched a surprise filibuster on gun control on the Senate floor, which lasted more than 14 hours.

Murphy, who was elected to the Senate a month before the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., was joined by Senate Democrats — including Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren — and a pair of Republicans in calling for such reforms as closing the so-called terrorist loophole and expanded background checks at gun shows.

“For those of us that represent Connecticut, the failure of this body to do anything, anything at all, in the face of that continued slaughter isn’t just painful to us,” Murphy said on the Senate floor. “It’s unconscionable.”

The Globe editorial focused its attention on the weapon favored by most mass shooters:

According to a new CBS News poll conducted after the Orlando shooting, 57 percent of Americans support a nationwide ban on assault weapons, up from 44 percent in December.

The Globe editorial concluded: “Unless this nation wants to see more mass killing in our schools, churches, theaters, nightspots, and office buildings, we must address the casualty quotient, which vastly increases with the use of semiautomatic assault arms. The idea of restricting unfettered access to assault weapons is only considered radical when it comes out of the mouth of a modern U.S. president. To most Americans, and every other democracy on the planet, it is rightly considered common sense.”