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Terror Attack in Orlando, Florida: 50 dead, 53 hospitalized

Terror Attack in Orlando, Florida: 50 dead, 53 hospitalized

The terrorist was shot and killed by Orlando police

http://www.13abc.com/content/news/20-dead-42-injured-in-possible-terror-attack-in-Orlando-Florida-382606681.html

An Islamic terrorist shot up an Orlando nightclub, killing 50 people and injuring at least 53 further people are hospitalized.

CNN reports:

Approximately 20 people are dead inside Pulse, a gay nightclub, Orlando Police Chief John Mina said Sunday morning, just hours after a shooter opened fire in the club. At least 42 people have been transported for medical treatment, he said.

Police have shot and killed the gunman, Mina told reporters.
“It’s appears he was organized and well-prepared,” the chief said, adding that the shooter had an assault-type weapon, a handgun and “some type of (other) device on him.” Law enforcement sources told CNN that the device, which was strapped to the suspect, was possibly explosive, but authorities don’t know if it was real or not.
A canine unit indicated there were explosives inside the suspect’s car as well, the sources said.
The most recent information released by police in Orlando is that 50 people have been killed and a further 53 are hospitalized.

ABC 13 reports:

The suspect in the mass shooting at night club in Florida has been identified as Omar Mateen of Port St. Lucie, Florida.

U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson identified the shooter in the Sunday incident. He cited law enforcement officials in speaking to reporters.

A federal law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation also identified him. The official was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement Special Agent in Charge Danny Banks said earlier that the mass shooting is being investigated as an act of terrorism. He says authorities are looking into whether the incident was an act of domestic or international terror, and if the shooter was a lone wolf.

Watch the report:

The Orlando police are providing updates via Twitter:

Florida governor Rick Scott is currently en route to Orlando, and we will provide updates as more information is learned.

2:41PM UPDATE (MC):

President Obama called the massacre an “act of terror” and “an act of hate.” He confirmed “the FBI is appropriately investigating this as an act of terror.”

Governor Rick Scott also called it “an act of terror.”

Scott released this statement before he traveled to Orlando:

Governor Scott said, “Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims, families and all those affected by this horrific tragedy. We are a strong and resilient state and we will devote every resource available to assist with the shooting in Orlando. Our state emergency operations center is also monitoring this tragic incident. I have been in constant communication with Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs and state and local law enforcement this morning. I would like to also thank all the first responders who quickly came to assist and help those in need.”

3:00PM UPDATE (MC):

The Islamic State has taken responsibility for the attack. However, no one can confirm if they planned the attack or even inspired it. Reports say that Mateen called 911 to pledge allegiance to the terrorist group’s leader, but no one has confirmed that report yet.

3:19PM UPDATE (MC):

The Hamilton musical has decided to not use muskets in their performance tonight because of the Orlando massacre.

4:02PM UPDATE (MC):

The FBI interviewed Mateen three times, but they came up inclusive. He came to their attention in 2013 “after he made inflammatory remarks to coworkers and alleged terrorist ties.” He made contact with a suicide bomber in 2014, which brought in the FBI again.

Officials released names of four victims:

Edward Sotomayor, Jr.
Stanley Almodovar III
Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo
Juan Ramon Guerrero

4:55PM UPDATE (MC):

Mateen’s Afghan father Seddique Mateen hosted a TV show and portrayed him as president of Afghanistan. He also “holds strong political views, including support for the Afghan Taliban.” From The Washington Post:

In one video, Mateen expresses gratitude toward the Afghan Taliban, while denouncing the Pakistani government.

“Our brothers in Waziristan, our warrior brothers in [the] Taliban movement and national Afghan Taliban are rising up,” he said. “Inshallah the Durand Line issue will be solved soon.”

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Comments

I live about an hour from Orlando and watching Orlando local tv. Very hard to watch. What I want is for our government to be truthful and for America to have an adult conversation on Islam, Immigration, terrorism and what kind of nation we want to live in?

I am sorry, but I am angry because this is in my backyard.

Meantime California bans concealed carry.

    Ragspierre in reply to edgeofthesandbox. | June 12, 2016 at 11:20 am

    No. It does not. Not on several levels.

    The ruling by the Ninth Circus was bad enough, don’t make it worse.

      Ragspierre in reply to Ragspierre. | June 12, 2016 at 1:33 pm

      FU down-thumbers in your eye-sockets.

      The 9th did NOT “outlaw concealed carry”, idiots. They made it a “permissive right”, which is WRONG. But LOTS of Californians have a permit, and LOTS more will be issued.

      Twanger in reply to Ragspierre. | June 13, 2016 at 11:26 am

      Rags – they made it all but impossible, and that’s essential the same thing.
      We have the same crap here in Maryland.
      Maryland is a “may issue” state, which means that will not issue a CCP unless you are part of the ruling class elite. Normal people are just SOL.
      “May issue” is an infringement of my rights.

    iconotastic in reply to edgeofthesandbox. | June 12, 2016 at 1:09 pm

    No, concealed carry in California is at the discretion of the local police (sheriff?). So make your election contributions early and often.

It’ll be interesting to learn if “Pulse” was a “gun-free” venue.

The families of the murdered and injured have just received some important lessons of life.

Namely, Islam and its believers are murderous.

This the stuff that Israel has had to endure, and protect itself from, for its entire 68 year history.

“Life’s a tough teacher. It gives the test first, then the lesson.”

legacyrepublican | June 12, 2016 at 11:24 am

It wouldn’t matter if it was an AR15 or a pressure cooker bomb, a determined terrorist will find a way to kill.

It is easy to terrorize our population when in broad daylight we have torn prayer out of our classrooms and kicked God out, yanked down God’s 10 laws out of our public view and spit on God’s Word, and allowed the innocent to be ripped out of the womb on our watch.

Repentance stops violence against God. That is the best way to start ending the world’s madness.

    Xenomethean in reply to legacyrepublican. | June 12, 2016 at 1:59 pm

    I believe that when evolution what promoted in schools, the only thing kids have taken from it is that they are nothing more than animals and nothing special. That is how the left is nothing but vile animals.

Time for us to recognize the fact that Islam was created by Muhammad as an evil religion of war dedicated to world conquest and the imposition of a Sharia based tyranny. That the terrorists are the true Muslims. That we are at war with Islam.

We need an effort similar to that which defeated and destroyed Nazism to defeat Islam. The first steps to victory are reestablishing the militia so every citizen will be able to resist these murderers. The next step is to ban Muslims from entering or residing in the USA. If people claim to be peaceful Muslims they should reject Islam and find a new peaceful religion to worship. Islam is identical in every significant respect to Nazism.

After I heard and c almed down I had a sudden realization.
It’s Trumps fault.

    stevewhitemd in reply to RodFC. | June 12, 2016 at 1:00 pm

    RodFC: fifty people, so far, are dead.

    This is not the time for that kind of snark. Put a sock on it.

      Subotai Bahadur in reply to stevewhitemd. | June 12, 2016 at 2:21 pm

      May not be time now, but you know and I know that within 24 hours that will be the word from the Democrats and their Republican allies. His sarcasm was off timing, but true.

        I already heard it on NPR today, several hours ago. It’s the Republicans’ fault for their rhetoric encouraging violence against gays. I kid you not, those jerks are blaming a terrorist attack by a jihadi f**khead on Donald Trump.

The pattern is clear and it is not an inanimate object as the left will say as they attempt to exploit this violence. This is not a tragedy. It is a war.

What is the first step a fire department takes when fighting a large fire? Containment. Then, they put out the fire because they know it will not spread.

How would we start in this case? Secure the borders — absolutely secure. Yet, the left will not do that. Why is that when the effect is so obvious? What do they really want?

To the left, these deaths are statistics on the road to Utopia. This will only get worse if we do not act. Ask Israel.

    Ragspierre in reply to TX-rifraph. | June 12, 2016 at 11:34 am

    This guy was an American citizen, and, if reports are accurate, a registered Deemocrat voter.

    As much as controlling the borders is a good thing in its own right, this has nothing to do with that.

      dystopia in reply to Ragspierre. | June 12, 2016 at 11:51 am

      Are you saying we need “Democrat Control” instead of “gun control”?

      OldNuc in reply to Ragspierre. | June 12, 2016 at 11:51 am

      He was also on an FBI Terrorist Watch List, guess that did not stop him either.

        Rick in reply to OldNuc. | June 12, 2016 at 12:25 pm

        “Watch list” should be changed to “wait list,” because we know what is coming, just not when.

          mariner in reply to Rick. | June 12, 2016 at 4:58 pm

          Watch List is also appropriate, because the authorities just watch while this stuff happens, then lecture us that taking away our firearms is the only solution.

        Toranth in reply to OldNuc. | June 12, 2016 at 12:38 pm

        He hadn’t committed any crime, so what could the FBI do to him?
        I’m not in favor of allowing the government to round up people for expressing unpopular opinions.

        I think Humphrey’s Executor has it right – the only way to act against attacks like this is to convince people to defend themselves.

Chuck Todd was just on NBC “News” talking about the need to ban “assault” weapons. He believes that will be one of Obama’s talking points.

    iconotastic in reply to dystopia. | June 12, 2016 at 1:11 pm

    Because that approach worked so well in France, right?

    herm2416 in reply to dystopia. | June 12, 2016 at 4:07 pm

    Elbows and knees kill quite a few people, too. Wait! So do cars! Ban those, too? I wish these people would call a vengeful Muslim a vengeful Muslim. It would make things a whole lot easier, and more truthful.

Humphrey's Executor | June 12, 2016 at 12:02 pm

We have to change our mindset. We can’t wait to helpless victims. The entire populous needs basic self defense training, martial arts, etc.

One of the tweets in the post above says “unfathomable.” No, it isn’t, and that’s a large part of the problem. Pretending the barbarians aren’t at the door–and inside–isn’t going to help deter further attacks.

We know what the response of the ruling class will be. The problem is guns and fundamentalism. And of course if we root out islamophobia and affirm homosexuality we would not have these problems.

Now, the issue is Islam and we need to be honest about this. There are plenty of Muslims here already. People convert. Law abiding, decent Muslim people who abhor terrorism have children and if their children “get religion” they are not going into monasteries, they are not going to walk door to door and try to convert people, they are not going to work soup kitchens, they are not going to wear hats and grow their sideburns and keep kosher. Some significant number of them will take up the struggle to impose sharia on the world through violence and intimidation. The form this violence takes depends greatly on numbers and how isolated jihadis are from each other.

Islam will be ignored as much as possible. Guns and hatred, that is going to be the narrative.

Bataclan nite club. A Christmas party for largely democrat county employees. Military personnel & installations etc.
Might I make a suggestion? We know the democrats & their media arm will do all they can to mischaracterize & politicize this. A fact is the republican congress is for open borders & has provided the funding through both Cromnibus & omnibus to make that happen.
This is what we’ll continue to get from bipartisan D.C. business as usual.
To those of you who are virulently never Trump. He’s the one person whose fingerprints will be nowhere to be found. There’s more I could say but I’ll leave it at that. This is no time for intramural fighting. This is the time to expose the bipartisan thinking that is bringing this on from both institutional parties. Paul Ryan, Nancy Pelosi ; Mitch McConnell, Harry Reid.
This killer may be an American citizen, he may even be American born but I doubt it. That doesn’t matter. What does matter is internationalist, institutional D.C. politics is exacerbating the situation.
I’ve tried to be temperate here. It remains to be seen what others will do over this.

I think it’s time for the hard left to criticize Israeli “pinkwashing” again.

Jihadis and Obama coming
The threat we’ve always known
This summer here comes the Trumping
50 dead in Orlando

There are indications that this guy was, in addition to being a jihadist wannabe…

1. a LEO wannabe

2. nuts in his own right

3. an abuser of women (i.e., his own wife of a few months)

And, while we can’t round up these guys when we identify them, we DAMN SURE can watch them better than this.

Under Florida law, should this fruitcake have had weapons, with his history of domestic violence?

50 people aborted. RIP

Common Sense | June 12, 2016 at 1:37 pm

Federal Law on Domestic Violence & Firearms

Federal law prohibits the purchase and possession of firearms and ammunition by persons who have been convicted in any court of a “misdemeanor crime of domestic violence” and/or who are subject to certain domestic violence protective orders.1

Federal law defines a “misdemeanor crime of domestic violence” as an offense that is a federal, state or tribal law misdemeanor and has the use or attempted use of physical force or threatened use of a deadly weapon as an element.2 In addition, the offender must:

Be a current or former spouse, parent, or guardian of the victim;
Share a child in common with the victim;
Be a current or former cohabitant with the victim as a spouse, parent or guardian; or
Be similarly situated to a spouse, parent or guardian of the victim.3

The domestic violence is interesting…wife beating is acceptable to some religious sect I seem to remember…ummm…tip of my tongue…

    Ragspierre in reply to tmiker. | June 12, 2016 at 1:47 pm

    Irish Catholics?

    See Quiet Man, The

    Remember “the rule of thumb”. Things do change. Wife beating…or husband beating…is against the law in all 57 states, I do believe.

Common Sense | June 12, 2016 at 1:47 pm

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/06/12/florida-nightclub-shooter-had-made-threats-in-past-reports-claim.html?intcmp=hpbt1

Investigators identified the shooter as 29-year-old Omar Mateen, a Muslim who had a Statewide Firearms License. They said he lived in Port St. Lucie and nearby Fort Pierce. His father, Seddique Mateen, announced he was running for president of Afghanistan sometime around May 2015.

Omar Mateen “was not a stable person,” his ex-wife told The Washington Post, which did not name her. “He beat me. He would just come home and start beating me up because the laundry wasn’t finished or something like that.” She said he worked as a guard at a facility for juvenile delinquents and frequently exercised at a nearby gym in his spare time.

    TX-rifraph in reply to Common Sense. | June 12, 2016 at 1:58 pm

    Is there an effective difference between being a legal citizen and a citizen culturally? Did his cultures clash so he felt he needed to choose? We talk of legal status of modern day immigrants but I think there is more to the problem. How large is the time bomb?

Common Sense | June 12, 2016 at 1:49 pm

So it seems the shooter has a statewide firearms license?

There could not have been a conviction of domestic violence?

legacyrepublican | June 12, 2016 at 2:06 pm

President Obama is speaking now. Am waiting to hear him blame a video. Nope, not yet. But, yes, gun control is entirely to blame; not the determination of a radicalized killer.

    The Friendly Grizzly in reply to legacyrepublican. | June 12, 2016 at 2:24 pm

    “President Obama is speaking now. Am waiting to hear him blame a video.”

    That would make as much sense as blaming lack of school prayer or teaching evolution, as done above.

Wife says beatings over laundry, not beer, so rules out Irish Catholics. Obama says we (America I presume) need to change. That about covers it.

Common Sense | June 12, 2016 at 2:12 pm

NBC Nightly News ‏@NBCNightlyNews 45m 45 minutes ago
Before shooting began, shooter called 911 and swore allegiance to ISIS – @PeteWilliamsNBC says
MSNBC
NBC News: Suspect swore allegiance to ISIS

Common Sense | June 12, 2016 at 2:14 pm

White House will claim work place violence!

A very sad day for America!

If only a presidential candidate would consider halting Muslim immigration and giving extra scrutiny to the Muslims already here!

That would be rational. Not politically acceptable.

Gremlin1974 | June 12, 2016 at 3:01 pm

Welcome to the fruits of years and years of our government knowingly letting these people in to our country and letting a sociopolitical movement of genocide and evil pretend to be a religion.

I don’t know what’s more sickening, the act itself or rather than acknowledging that there’s a deadly conflict between two factions of their base, the Left is lashing out at their cliched political “rogues” gallery over this.

I expect the FBI “investigation” of Hillary to have the same effect as its investigation of the shooter.

“The Hamilton musical has decided to not use muskets in their performance tonight because of the Orlando massacre.”

At last! Someone figured out the root cause of Islamic terrorism — it’s because the damned Americans used muskets in the 18th century.

Who would have figured?

Cowards at Hamilton.

Keep letting them in country, Barry, Hillary – and Squeaker Ryan.