The New York Times editorial board slammed the NRA after the Orlando shootings. | Haxorjoe via Wikimedia Commons NYT editorial board: NRA complicit in terrorism

The National Rifle Association is complicit in terrorist attacks with its failure to support gun-control restrictions with broad public and bipartisan support, The New York Times' editorial board said Thursday.

"Few places on earth make it easier than the United States for a terrorist to buy assault weapons to mow down scores of people in a matter of minutes. The horrific massacre in Orlando last weekend is only the latest example," the board wrote, after noting that Al Qaeda in a 2011 recruitment video urged would-be jihadists to take advantage of the abundance of "easily obtainable firearms."


Such attacks are "made vastly easier by a gun lobby that has blocked sensible safety measures at every turn, and by members of Congress who seem to pledge greater allegiance to the firearms industry than to their own constituencies," the editorial board continued. "There is a word for their role in this form of terrorism: complicity."

Pointing to polls that suggest an "overwhelming majority of Americans — including gun owners and even N.R.A. members — support universal background checks" as well as "strong majorities" to block gun sales to suspected terrorists and to also ban high-capacity magazines, the article noted that the NRA opposed such measures even though it has maintained that terrorists should not be able to obtain guns.

"Instead, it clings to the absurd fantasy that a heavily-armed populace is the best way to keep Americans safe. That failed in Orlando, where an armed security guard was on the scene but could not stop the slaughter," the piece continues, noting that although the gun lobby "may be beyond reason," lawmakers "have a duty to respond to their constituents."

The NRA has maintained that increased restrictions on gun sales or other measures do not deter "radical Islamic terrorists," as NRA-ILA Executive Director Chris W. Cox wrote in a USA Today op-ed published Tuesday.