When the Newtown school shooting took place, I was making the long car trek from Ithaca to Rhode Island.
And so it was as reports came out on Sunday about the Orlando Pulse gay night club terror attack.
As with the Newtown shooting, for the first several hours I had to rely on AM radio coverage — when it was available.
Since then, because I’ve been attending to family health matters, I have not had a lot of time to focus on the developments or write about it. Thanks to other Legal Insurrection authors for staying on top of the news reports and analysis.
Most of what I’ve learned has been from headlines and Twitter, which are basically the same thing. So I don’t want to jump to conclusions, or presume anything.
If I have any of the facts wrong, please let me know. I want to get this right. Here’s what happened, from what I can tell:
Omar Mateen was the Muslim American son of a radical Afghan firebrand, fell somewhere on the glorious spectrum of LGBTTQQIAAP and frequented the Pulse club, was under suspicion and was interviewed multiple times by the FBI for radical Islamist contacts, expressed admiration if not allegiance to Hezbollah and Al Nusra, sported at times an “I love Palestine” scarf, thought highly of the Boston Marathon bombers, and pledged allegiance to ISIS during a mid-attack phone call with police.
What could have been his motive? I’m at a loss. Makes no sense. We may never know for sure.
One thing the regressive left does know for sure: It’s the Christians’ fault, the nation’s biggest concern should be Islamophobia, and law-abiding citizens need to be stripped of their guns so they are as defenseless against the Mateens of the world as the people in the Pulse night club.
Do I have the scenario down?
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