The New York Times just published its first front-page editorial since 1920 - and it's slamming gun violence in America

For the first time since 1920, The New York Times has published an op-ed on its front page.

The editorial titled, "The Gun Epidemic" takes aim at gun control in the US, a topic that has frequently become front-of-mind nationally, amid a sharp rise in mass shootings this year.

In the piece, The Times' editorial board writes: "It is a moral outrage and a national disgrace that civilians can legally purchase weapons designed specifically to kill people with brutal speed and efficiency."

Critics have often slammed lawmakers for a number of failing surrounding the issue - including the lack of consensus on how to limit access to certain types of weapons.

The article goes on to classify certain firearms as "weapons of war, " and implicates the weapons industry for marketing guns "as tools of macho vigilantism and even insurrection."

The editorial board then launches into a strongly worded rebuke of US lawmakers, who offer thoughts and prayers for victims of gun violence, "and then, callously and without fear of consequence, reject the most basic restrictions on weapons of mass killing."