Shooting in Orlando gay nightclub: 50 dead, ‘act of domestic terrorism’
By Ian Greenhalgh on June 12, 2016
We have come a long way from the Texas Bell Tower sniper shootings in 1966 and the mass killing scourge that Charles Whitman unleashed on us that day.
Yes… another one.
[ Editor’s Note Update: Well this is indeed a bad day, when a new mass killing record is set in the US by a lone shooter with only and assault rifle and a handgun. The bad news is the updated statistic of 53 dead and 50 injured now. That means where were a lot of clip reloads. Our prayers go out to all the victims and their families.
I did a very quick notice Press TV news clip on the story. We did not know the shooter was an Afghan Muslim at air time. They graciously gave me some time to cover the “copycat” crime history on these shootings, starting with the Texas bell tower sniper…how the massive coverage triggered other losers seeking to go out in a blaze of glory to do the same.
We had the “Going Postal” genre, where disgruntled, fired employees would go back and shoot up their former employers and then later came the school shootings, which also became “copycat” fodder. No one call this terrorism at any step of the process, almost like permission had not been given to use the term.
I knew the question would come up about “too many guns in America” which set me up for saying what never gets airtime during these mass killing stories, that 2 million Americans defend themselves from criminal attacks every year using a gun. Many do not have to fire them, and then there are those who kill their attackers.
This puff of smoke is from Whitman firing a shot
The “people versus guns kill people” debate will be going on for a long time. A gun has never killed anyone, people do. And if they are not totally crazy they do it for a reason, like they saw someone else do it on TV and decided to do the same for whatever warped reason.
My two cents? Dear night club, with 300 plus people in your club you can afford two armed and well trained security people to protect your customers. You have the camera technology to spot suspect people. Adding a $1 to the entry fee would cover the cost. You could put up a sign that you have a well armed establishment.
Here in Georgia churches were banned places for gun carriers, but that law was amended to allow the churches to allow armed concealed carry security if they chose. This was done after random church shootings began and everyone was well tuned to the copycat crime aspect.
After the Newton, Connecticut mass elementary school shooting nine states enacted legislation to allows schools to have armed, trained personnel. But most were afraid of the “liability” of getting sued from an incident and chose to be defenseless to an armed attacker, depending on locked door security to save them.
No school has been sued for not having protection. In the meantime there are idiots that actually put up yard signs, “This is a gun free house”. The house breakers and thieves are most grateful. There is another kind of sign, “We have guns and now how to use them”. This debate will be with us forever… Jim W. Dean]
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– First published … June 12, 2016 –
This tragic incident has several hallmarks of being a false flag attack; the shooter being a young Muslim, the FBI ‘checking’ to see if he has links with extremists, the shooter already dead and unable to answer any questions. It’s all too familiar. The fact it was a gay club may also be significant, given the current hoo-hah in the US political arena over LGBT issues.
Since the initial reports, the shooter has been identified as US citizen Omar Mateen from Florida. 
The suspect behind the gay nightclub shooting in Orlando, which left dozens dead and injured, has been identified as Omar Mateen, the CBS network reported, citing sources. The channel added that the FBI is currently checking if he was linked to extremists.
A correspondent from the WFTV channel said Mateen was 27 years old and was from Port St. Lucie in Florida, nearly 150km from Orlando.
According to reports on social media, he was born to Afghan parents.
Quite frankly, this is almost certainly an event designed to provoke further anti-Islamic feeling in the US and judging by the sort of stupid, ill-informed and hate-filled commentary that is already appearing on various websites reporting on this story, it is an easy sell.
This comment, the byline to an article on the shooting is sadly typical of the nonsense flooding the interwebs:
His level of preparation indicates an intention to demonstrate his profound devotion to Allah during Ramadan.
Since when was Ramadan about killing people? How is committing murder showing devotion to Allah? This is just ludicrous nonsense written by someone who is either completely ignorant of Islam or is willfully telling nefarious lies in order to demonise Islam and Moslems.
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Russia Today
Mass shooting in Orlando gay nightclub: About 20 dead, 42 injured, ‘act of domestic terrorism’
A mass shooting has taken place in a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. About 20 people have been killed and at least 42 taken to hospitals, police said, adding that a SWAT team killed the shooter.
The incident took place at the Pulse nightclub.
“This can be classified as a domestic terror incident,” Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said.
“Approximately” 20 people were killed and at least 42 people have been taken to local hospitals, Orlando Sheriff John Mina said at a press conference, adding that the shooter was wearing some “type of device.”
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer added that “many lives were lost.”
Nearly 320 people were inside the nightclub at the time of the shooting.
Police said on Twitter that the shooter inside the nightclub is dead. The sheriff also confirmed the attacker was killed by a SWAT team. He was armed with an assault rifle and a handgun, officials said.
The Orange County sheriff called the nightclub shooting an “act of domestic terrorism.”
“At this time we’re looking at all angles right now,” an FBI official said.
He was asked if the shooter might have possible connections with extremists. “We do have suggestions that that individual may have leanings towards that particular ideology [extremism]. But right now we can’t say definitively so we’re still running everything around,” he added.
Twitter users said they heard multiple gunshots in the area.
One more witness, Brett Moots, told the New York Daily News that he saw people “being taken away with bullet wounds [to] their arms and abdomen.”
According to a reporter from the Orlando News, the shooter was wearing a bomb.
Pulse nightclub wrote on Facebook: “Everyone get out of Pulse and keep running.”
People took to Facebook to share information on the shooting. Under the Pulse club post they wrote that the attacker had an assault rifle and was barricaded inside with hostages.
Javer Antonetti, who went to the club with his brother, told Orlando News that he heard many shots. He managed to escape, but his brother, who was on crutches, remained in the building. “I’m not going anywhere,” he said. “Police told me he’s safe but he’s still stuck back there.”
“Everyone was getting on the floor,” another witness, Rosie Feba added. “I thought it was just part of the music, until I saw fire coming out of his gun.”
