The Orlando Shooting

You have undoubtedly heard about Saturday night's Orlando shooting by now. There is literally a truckload of news stories on the internet about the June 11th killings. Here is a breakdown of what we know about it, and links to the news sources if you want to know more:

Omar Mateen, the Orlando gunman, called 911 during the attack. He identified himself by name as the shooter, and declared his allegiance to ISIS. He killed 50 people and wounded 53 others in the Orlando gay night club known as The Pulse.

It was reported back on June 8th that a pro-ISIS group released a "kill list" of 8,000 people, mostly Americans, On that list, there were 600 Floridians. Whether this is related to the Orlando shootings is unknown.

ISIS did publicly call for attacks in the U.S. and Europe during Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, which started last week. There is no indication of any direct contact between ISIS and the Orlando gunman.

On one hand, Mateen's parents (who are from Afghanistan) did not consider him particularly religious. On the other hand, it should be noted that Mateen's father, after moving to the U.S., attempted "to dabble in Afghan politics from afar, starting a YouTube channel in Florida in which he sometimes expressed favorable views about the Taliban." Also, an unnamed "law enforcement official" linked Mateen with Marcus Dwayne Robertson, who is allegedly a radical Muslim. Additionally, the Washington Post reported this:

...one friend said Mateen became steadily more religious after his divorce and went on a religious pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia. 

“He was quite religious,” said the friend, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity. Yet, he added, if Mateen had sympathies for the Islamic State or other terrorist groups, he never mentioned them. 

For several years, Mateen regularly attended the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce and was there as recently as two days ago, said Imam Shafiq Rahman on Sunday. 

The imam said Mateen’s father and young son would pray with him, and Mateen’s three sisters were active volunteers at the mosque, which had about 150 congregants.

Mateen's ex-wife claims Mateen beat her regularly, and called him unstable. They were married for 2 years and divorced in 2011.

Mateen had a history of homophobia. His father was quoted as saying this about Mateen:

“We were in downtown Miami, Bayside, people were playing music. And he saw two men kissing each other in front of his wife and kid and he got very angry...They were kissing each other and touching each other and he said, ‘Look at that. In front of my son they are doing that.’ ”

This is not the first time a Muslim male has murdered gays for political reasons.

In my opinion, and based on the information above, I view Omar Mateen as a disturbed individual who traveled in the mainstream of Islamic America, yet one day went beyond it. His homophobia never would have raised any red flags in a Muslim community. They would have blindly been encouraging what he did and wouldn't see any issues with their hateful actions, even after he committed the shootings. They will say he acted on his own, even as they were codependent in his atrocity.

The ISIS aspect in this seemed incidental. However, don't write it off completely. It was clearly important enough to Mateen for him to mention it in his 911 call during the massacre. But it is also possible that Mateen might have committed these murders without the ISIS call to violence. We can't know what "might have been", so we have to take this at face value as a terrorist act.

As a terrorist act committed by an unhinged Muslim, this becomes a political question: How should we respond to this? Here is how the politicians reacted:

"We need to keep guns like the ones used last night out of the hands of terrorists or other violent criminals." —Hillary on the FL attack

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 12, 2016

I wonder if it hurts when her knee jerks like that?

Seriously, I had a fun conversation with my daughter on this topic. She is adamantly against guns. I asked her what if more people in The Pulse had been carrying guns? Her answer: More people would have died. My daughter and Hillary Clinton get the bear for that one...

On the other side...

Horrific incident in FL. Praying for all the victims & their families. When will this stop? When will we get tough, smart & vigilant?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 12, 2016

"Tough, smart & vigilant" sounds like "more bombing in the Middle East and more NSA spying on Americans". Because that has really worked so well for us. Sorry Donald, you get the shark:

And from the Libertarian side:

Thoughts are with the #Orlando victims & a community who has been attacked. It's a time to mourn, be strong & be what makes America great.

— Gov. Gary Johnson (@GovGaryJohnson) June 12, 2016

Fortunately, Gary Johnson elaborated on his response to the Washington Post:

“In this immediate aftermath of what is clearly a tragic and despicable attack, our thoughts must be with the victims...Regardless of what the motivation is ultimately found to be, this violence against innocent people simply going about their lives is both cowardly and infuriating. We must allow the authorities to do their jobs, understand how this attack came about, and then respond accordingly. It is not a time to either politicize or jump to conclusions.”

Yawn. Really Gary? You put out the boilerplate response?

Former Libertarian presidential candidate Austin Petersen had one of the more intelligent comments:

If today you find yourself simultaneously defending the rights of gun owners, gays, and Muslims, you just might be a libertarian.

— Austin Petersen (@AP4LP) June 12, 2016

Sorry Austin. I will defend the gun owners and the gays, but Islamic codependence with terrorism leaves them culpable in my mind. Of course, if we quit killing innocent Muslims by the thousands in the Middle East and Asia, that might help solve the American terrorism problem by removing one excuse.