Annapolis, MD -(AmmoLand.com)- Our thoughts are with those families that lost loved ones and those injured in the terrorist attack in the club this past Saturday night in Orlando. An evil person, performed an evil act based on hate for our fellow man.
So, what do we know about the terrorist? We know that the terrorist (I refuse to use his name) was born in the US to immigrant parents. We know that he had a Class G security permit from the State of Florida’s Department of Agriculture, which means that he had to endure not one, but two background investigations by the state of Florida. We know that he was investigated by the FBI twice for terrorist sympathies or ties, with the first case being closed in 2013 and the second closed in 2014. We know that he purchased a rifle on June 4th with no issue, passing the NICS background check, and a Glock handgun on June 5th, again passing a NICS check. We know that his wife drove him to the club on more than one occasion as well on a trip to purchase ammunition and a holster.
What do we know about the event? We know that he entered the club at 2:02 AM Sunday morning and started shooting. We know that on off duty uniformed Orlando police officer engaged the terrorist inside the club as soon as he heard the shooting start. The officer retreated back outside of the club and waited for back-up. We know that the first officers arrived two minutes after the shooting started, they formed up with the first officer and went back into the club to re-engage the terrorist and forced him into a bathroom with club goers, causing a standoff. We know that three hours later Orlando SWAT executed an attempted rescue with explosive and an armored vehicle, the terrorist came out of the building with the hostages and started shooting at police at which point he was killed.
We still do not know for sure what the failures were. Did the FBI fail in it’s investigations? Did his wife, knowing he was planning this fail to notify authorities? Were there any civilians shot by friendly fire by the police in the three different engagements with the terrorist? There are others as well, and I will not speculate on any of them.
What we do know is that the anti-gun lobby will use this as a stepping stone to further erode our Constitutional rights at the Federal level and the State level in the next legislative session beginning in January. We are also hearing of several Maryland counties that are considering county laws that would restrict law abiding gun owners from being able to protect themselves. We will probably see bills to ban the AR-15 and other assault weapons at the Federal level, and further restrict magazine capacities. We will see another attempt to adopt the terror watch list as a prohibiting fact for purchasing or owning a firearm, a move that would violate every citizen’s 5th Amendment right to due process.
Some of the extreme proponents of gun control will say that this had nothing to do with an extremist religion, or hate, or intolerance of a different life style. They will instead say that this is due to the lack of reasonable gun violence measures or common sense gun laws. What they do not understand is that whether it be a fertilizer bomb, box-cutters to take over planes, or using a firebomb after being kicked out of a club, evil people bent on doing evil things will use any means to achieve their end.
Dan Blasberg
President
Maryland Shall Issue
[email protected]
https://www.vcdl.org/webapps/vcdl/2017leg.html
301-943-8903
About Maryland Shall Issue:
Mission Statement: Maryland Shall Issue is an all volunteer, non-partisan effort dedicated to the preservation and advancement of all gunowners’ rights in Maryland, with a primary goal of CCW reform to allow all law-abiding citizens the right to carry a concealed weapon; and to the education of the community to the awareness that ‘shall issue’ laws have, in all cases, resulted in decreased rates of violent crime.
For more information, visit: https://www.vcdl.org/webapps/vcdl/2017leg.html.
We know that the state of Florida bears some responsibility for these deaths as they prohibited the possibility of self defense.
The writer made the same mistake most pro 2nd Amendment proponents make. “We will probably see bills to ban the AR-15 and other assault weapons”. The AR 15 is NOT an assault weapon. We let the anti 2nd Amendment proponents define the terms and then we use their terms. Words are important. Use them precisely! If we continue to fall into the trap, assault pistols will be next and then assault shotguns by their appearances. Wake up 2nd Amendments proponents! Force the issue of how an assault weapons differs from an AR 15. Force the conversation to stop using the… Read more »
@ Bill Miley, I agree, we must not let the gun grabbers establish the terms, define the terms, frame the issues, or control the debate. Most of them only know verbiage, and are inexperienced with actual firearms or firearms safey procedures or gravely extreme situations. They are just debaters. Forceful push back with real terms, actual facts and truthful statistics will shut them up most of the time. Begin with “Well… that isn’t true!” and “Why do you hate people so much” and go from there!
What do we know? We know Obama and his anti-gun cronies are not interested in stopping terrorist attacks.
There were many failures. Thanks too PC all the red flags were ignored. The domestic violence alone should have kept him from buying any guns. Since Columbine police training is once you have 3 or 4 officers go in, find the shooter and stop him immediately. Waiting for SWAT is what got all the Columbine victims killed, and stopping at the bathroom door is one of the things that created many more victims here. Sheeple told for years you are safer if you don’t resist, do what the criminal tells you run and hide also contributed. They could have swarmed… Read more »
So easy to arm chair quarterback these things. Ever ACTUALLY been in civilian gun fight? I have as well as in my former role in LE and I can tell you that all the things you list are fine in a movie and great at the range but in a war your brains turn to mush and flow out your ears and all you are left with is your raw intuition and human instinct/nature (which is hunker down and freeze up) and unless you have AGGRESSIVE replaced the original nature with shear rote retrained training what happened will happen over… Read more »