The journalist emphasized that the lack of action demonstrates the "cowardice of the politicians" who, in his words, "are in the pocket of the NRA."
Citing stats from a Washington Post piece on the issue, Friedman recalled that the US has now had 247 mass shootings (involving the shooting of at least 4 people) in the first 238 days of 2015, with violence taking one life every 16 minutes, 92 a day, or 33,000 a year, effectively turning gun violence into a health issue in America. Friedman asked his listeners to "imagine if we had terrorist attacks that killed 33,000 a year, or even 200 a year, and how the American people would devote resources to doing something about it."
The journalist quoted the words of Any Parker, father of slain WDBJ reporter Alison Parker, who told CNN that Alison's "life was cut short; she had so much potential, and it's senseless that her life and Adam's life were taken by a crazy person with a gun. I'm for the second amendment, but there has to be a way to force politicians that are cowards and in the pockets of the NRA, to come to grips and make sensible laws so that crazy people can't get guns. It can't be that hard, and yet politicians from the local level to the state level, to the national level sidestep the issue and kick the can down the road. This can't happen anymore."
"How many new towns are we going to have, how many Sandy Hooks, how many Allisons is this going to happen to before we stop it?" the bereaved father asked.
The journalist noted that this is not a lot to ask, and would be supported by both Republicans and Democrats, and by NRA members themselves. He said that it was simply "obscene" that Republicans blocked the issue from even being voted on, "after dozens of 6 year olds were killed at Sandy Hook."
