Gary Younge’s article on the Orlando mass-shooting ends with two sentences. “Fear favours the demagogue. History sides with the cautious.”
He was emphasising how the previous attacks in Paris and California have changed the political inclination in the country and how this would further influence the same. A closer look at the incident reveals many, many issues lingering beneath the continuous blaming that the politicians and citizens of America have resorted to yet again.
It was just 48 hours after America bade farewell with love and pride to one of their most celebrated Muslim, Mohammad Ali, when the Orlando massacre occurred, drowning those emotions once again into the ever- increasing sea of hatred and suspicion.
The shooting happened at Pulse, a popular gay bar and dance club. The incident occurred around 2 a.m. Sunday morning. 49 people died and 53 injured; authorities are calling this an act of terrorism. According to the Orlando mayor, 39 died in the club, 9 died in the hospital or en route to the hospital, 2 died outside the club.
The shooter identified as Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old from Fort Pierce, Fla, was shot and killed by officers in a shootout according to police. Mateen had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State before the attack, according to U.S. law enforcement officials.
Figures say this is the deadliest of the mass shooting in the country. The 50 fatalities at Pulse are considerably more than the 33 victims killed during the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007, or the 28 fatalities in the Newtown, Conn., school shooting in 2012.
The facts are tempting, though. The shooter was a Muslim and the destination was a gay club, which makes it easy to connect terrorism, homophobia and America’s gun control norms by a single thread. But none of the facts could be nailed as the sole reason for the tragedy as each one contradicts with other facts.
Islam has not invented mass shootings or homophobia. It was very much in the country with as many as 330 instances in the last year alone. So that would not stand the ground.
And as far his allegiance to ISIS is concerned; Mateen does not appear to have had any previous convictions. And one cannot be arrested for just thinking about terror.
American’s gun control norms have long been turned and twisted but to no avail. Now, this would definitely have put some check on the happenings. Global security experts and criminologists have raised their concerns about a convergence between terrorism and the American phenomenon of mass shootings.
Mateen was armed with AR 15, which is said to be a weapon of choice for mass shooters. For such attackers, who don’t have any direct ties to experts in terrorist networks, America’s nearly 60,000 gun dealers would offer plenty of high-caliber options.
The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population with about 35–50 percent of the world’s civilian-owned guns, according to a 2007 report by the Switzerland-based Small Arms Survey. The United States also has the highest homicide-by-firearm rate among the world’s most developed nations.
But again, France has strict gun laws and neither has it been spared of such shootings in the last couple of years.
The plot is thick and much complicated. People cannot just blame the religion for it. After all, a man reaps what he sows.
