“God isn’t fixing this”: The Daily News on why prayers aren’t enough after mass shootings

The New York Daily News’s Thursday cover story on the shooting in San Bernardino takes a strong stand on a surprising controversy that emerged in the wake of the shooting — politicians’ habit of offering banal “thoughts and prayers” to the victims while opposing any kind of policy response.

Republicans are, of course, not the only ones to offer thoughts and prayers in the wake of a tragedy. Hillary Clinton, for example, tweeted along these lines after the church shooting in Charleston.

But many liberals are angry not at the offer of thoughts and prayers but at the refusal to offer anything else. There are, of course, an untold number of firearms homicides, accidents, and suicides that happen each month without any comment from national politicians. But many advocates of gun control legislation view it as especially galling for politicians to feel the need to comment on an event without having any policy ideas to contribute.

The Daily News cover is the most emotionally powerful statement of this viewpoint today. But the most comprehensive comes from ThinkProgress’s Igor Volsky, who has been retweeting politicians’ thoughts and prayers paired with commentary on their ties to the gun lobby.