{"id":3394,"date":"2016-08-01T13:53:23","date_gmt":"2016-08-01T20:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/?p=3394"},"modified":"2016-08-14T15:42:49","modified_gmt":"2016-08-14T22:42:49","slug":"all-mohammeds-children-love-a-gun-free-zone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/?p=3394","title":{"rendered":"All Mohammed\u2019s children love a gun-free zone"},"content":{"rendered":"

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(A version of the following column runs in the Aug. 10 issue of “Firearms News” — formerly “Shotgun News” — on newsstands this week.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Quick: Among all America\u2019s 20,000 overlapping \u201cgun control\u201d laws, which had an impact on the number of deaths when Islamic terrorist Omar Mir Seddique Mateen -\u2013 the wife-beating, ISIS-supporting, bi-sexual son of politically active Afghan immigrants -\u2013 went on a rampage with a couple of semi-automatic weapons in a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, June 12?<\/p>\n

The \u201cbackground checks\u201d required by the 1993 \u201cBrady Bill\u201d?<\/p>\n

Those didn\u2019t stop Mateen, a security guard, from buying the two semi-automatic, one-shot-per-trigger-pull firearms he used to murder 49 innocent Americans and wound 50 more.<\/p>\n

Mateen had been investigated twice by the FBI — first in 2013 after he made \u201cinflammatory comments to co-workers alleging possible ties to terrorists,\u201d and again in 2014, when agents examined possible ties connecting Mateen to Moner Mohammad Abusalha, the first “American” Muslim to carry out a suicide attack in Syria. Both men lived in Fort Pierce, Florida. \u201cWe determined that contact was minimal and did not constitute a substantive relationship or a threat at that time,\u201d and they closed those files, says the head of the local office of the FBI.<\/p>\n

Which is fine. My point is not that anyone should be barred from exercising his or her gun rights just because they were investigated by the FBI. The FBI investigates lots of people, and clears most of them. Instead, my point is that the \u201cbackground check\u201d system costs billions, inconveniences millions of law-abiding Americans, and is mostly for show. Convicted felons know to shop elsewhere, and mass murderers — like Mateen — rarely turn out to be convicted felons.<\/p>\n

Mateen had legally purchased the two guns — which the BATFE identified as a .223-caliber AR-15-type semi-automatic rifle and a 9mm semiautomatic pistol (other sources say a SIG Sauer MCX rifle and a Glock 17 \u2013 he wasn\u2019t buying off the bargain shelf) -\u2013 within \u201cthe last few days,\u201d said Trevor Velinor of the ATF.<\/p>\n

Needless to say, Former Secretary of State Clinton the next day urged even more \u201cgun control,\u201d saying the massacre reminds \u201cus once more that weapons of war have no place on our streets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Except in the hands of the enemy, apparently.<\/p>\n

Democratic Sen. Bernie Sanders called for new gun bans. \u201cWe should not be selling automatic weapons which are designed to kill people,\u201d the Democratic presidential candidate said on NBC\u2019s \u201cMeet the Press.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Charles Schumer agreed. \u201cWe have to get tougher on guns. . . . In this country it is so easy for so many people to get these kinds of assault weapons whose only purpose is to shoot a whole lot of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The correction of such misstatements (there, I used the nice word, see?) grows tedious. The Constitution does not guarantee us the right to bear arms so as to be able to resist any future tyrant \u201cexcept for weapons of war . . . the kind designed to shoot a whole lot of people.\u201d The initial BATF attackers who Mr. and Mrs. Clinton sent to that church in Waco, shooting the dog in her pen in the front yard and then opening fire into a building full of women and children without making any attempt whatever to “serve their warrant,” later testified under oath that they shot at such clear targets as \u201ca moving curtain.” When the Clintons then sent their replacement FBI snipers including Lon Horiuchi to pick off the women and children in that church (prior to burning them to death as the FBI guys held the fire engines a mile away) did the Clintons tell those G-men to leave behind everything but the muzzle-loaders, because repeating arms \u201chave no place on our streets\u201d?<\/p>\n

\u201cAssault weapons\u201d and \u201cweapons of war\u201d like the M-16 and the AK-47 have a \u201cselector switch\u201d allowing full-auto fire. In violation of the Second Amendment, the 1934 National Firearms Act and the follow-up 1968 \u201cGun Control Act\u201d have cut off the supply of true automatic \u201cClass III NFA\u201d weapons, driving prices sky-high and purposely making it virtually impossible for most Americans to afford such historical artifacts.<\/p>\n

Yes, someone with gunsmithing skills might (illegally) convert a semi-auto to full-auto fire. But the BATF reported no such modification to Mateen\u2019s rifle. And non-shooters are notoriously bad witnesses as to whether they\u2019ve been under automatic or semi-auto fire. Recall that even experienced German soldiers, when they first encountered the semi-auto M-1 Garand in Normandy in 1944, would often insist three G.I.s behind a hedgerow with their Garands must be armed with a machine gun. And the Garand loads an 8-round clip, not a 30-round magazine.<\/p>\n

I would suggest nobody who can\u2019t tell an \u201cautomatic weapon\u201d or an \u201cassault weapon\u201d from a one-shot-per-trigger-pull weapon like the one the Orlando murderer used in his chosen gun-free zone (where he was a regular patron, by the way) — or who knowingly lies about the difference -\u2013 should ever be commander-in-chief of the armed forces, or anything else.<\/p>\n

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What about the Florida law which bars citizens licensed to carry concealed weapons from taking those self-defense handguns into a liquor-serving nightclub, including \u201cPulse\u201d in Orlando? Could that have impacted the death toll?<\/p>\n

Bingo! We have a winner! That law worked just fine \u2013 in setting up the killer\u2019s hundred defenseless victims like tin ducks in a shooting gallery.<\/p>\n

All Mohammed\u2019s children love a gun-free zone<\/strong><\/p>\n

Because Mateen\u2019s victims were law-abiding where he was not, that law guaranteed that none of the hundred people he shot (heck, none of the 300 souls in the club) were able to shoot back, even during his multiple magazine changes. (And no, you can\u2019t defend Florida\u2019s law on the grounds that \u201cpeople who are drinking shouldn\u2019t carry guns.\u201d Groups going out for a night on the town are encouraged to appoint a sober \u201cdesignated driver,\u201d aren\u2019t they? Why not let them also designate a soda-pop-only \u201cdesignated bodyguard\u201d to carry concealed all night, just as the armed bodyguards who defend our professional politicians do?)<\/p>\n

So, are the gun control advocates who helped kill those 49 people finally willing to admit all their \u201cgun control\u201d laws do more harm than good, merely setting up the innocent as disarmed victims? Of course not! Lying and insisting Mateen had \u201cassault weapons\u201d or even \u201cautomatic weapons,\u201d they now want even more laws to make sure future victims are even more defenseless!<\/p>\n

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The shooting raises other questions, of course. Suffolk County, N.Y., Chief of Patrol Stuart Cameron, who has written several academic journal articles about police protocol when faced with an active shooter, tells the Los Angeles Times that analyses of past shootings suggest one person is killed every 15 seconds in a typical mass-casualty shooting. That would be a reason for cops to don their Kevlar and storm the scene in a hurry. So why on earth did 100 Orlando police and sheriff\u2019s deputies \u201cdo a Columbine,\u201d sitting around outside the Pulse nightclub for three hours -\u2013 from minutes after the shooting started at 2:02 a.m. until 5:05 a.m. -\u2013 allowing many victims inside to finish bleeding to death as these brave \u201cfirst responders\u201d drank coffee and waited for someone to arrive with a tank?<\/p>\n

Ask any doctor or ambulance attendant how much difference it makes to their survival rates if gunshot victims can\u2019t get to the hospital for THREE HOURS.<\/p>\n

It appears a uniformed Orlando Police officer working extra duty at the club initially engaged Mateen, returning fire at 2:02 a.m. Good! Mateen managed to get into the building, anyway. Two additional uniformed officers quickly showed up and may have also engaged Mateen -\u2013 good! But when he \u201cretreated further into the nightclub,\u201d they broke off contact.<\/p>\n

Yes, it\u2019s easy to play Monday Morning Quarterback. But nightclubs have multiple entrances, including through the kitchen. What happened to all this ballyhooed \u201ccourage of our first responders\u201d? How long does it take for a couple of armed police volunteers to pull on Kevlar vests and helmets and slip in through the kitchen door for a look around? For that matter, why not just get the intelligence they needed by talking to the survivors hiding inside, on their cell phones? Why would THAT take three hours?<\/p>\n

Barack Obama, of course, went on TV and got all weepy as usual, asserting \u201cAs Americans, we are united in grief, in outrage, and in resolve to defend our people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Really? Against whom?<\/p>\n

John Podhoretz took President Obama to task so well for his stunning refusal to acknowledge who it is who\u2019s killing Americans left and right (look up San Bernardino, December 2015; look up \u201cFort Hood\u201d) that I can do no better than to cite excerpts from his column in the June 12 New York Post:<\/p>\n

\u201cOmar Mateen called the cops to pledge his fealty to ISIS as he was carrying out his mass murder in Orlando early Sunday,\u201d Podhoretz writes. \u201cTwelve hours later, the president of the United States declared that \u2018we have no definitive assessment on the motivation\u2019 of Omar Mateen but that \u2018we know he was a person filled with hate.\u2019 . . .<\/p>\n

\u201cHere again, and horribly, we have an unmistakable indication that Obama finds it astonishingly easy to divorce himself from a reality he doesn\u2019t like — the reality of the Islamist terror war against the United States and how it is moving to our shores in the form of lone-wolf attacks,\u201d columnist Podhoretz continues.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo determined is the president to avoid the subject of Islamist, ISIS-inspired or ISIS-directed terrorism that he concluded his remarks with an astonishing insistence that \u201cwe need the strength and courage to change\u201d our attitudes toward the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s just disgusting,\u201d Podhoretz writes.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmerica\u2019s national attitude toward LGBT people didn\u2019t shoot up the Pulse nightclub. This country\u2019s national attitude has undergone a sea change in the past 20 years, by the way, in case the president hasn\u2019t noticed.
\n\u201cAn Islamist terrorist waging war against the United States killed and injured 103 people on our soil. We Americans do not bear collective responsibility for this attack. Quite the opposite.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe attack on the Pulse nightclub was an attack on us all, no less than the World Trade Center attack,\u201d Podhoretz continued. \u201cTo suggest we must look inward to explain this is not only unseemly but practically an act of conscious misdirection on the president\u2019s part to direct out attention away from Omar Mateen\u2019s phone call.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrue to form, the president spoke more words about the scourge of guns than about the threat of terror. . . .\u201d<\/p>\n

Mrs. Clinton gives in<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meantime, defying gutless Republican strategists who prefer to see their candidates lose quietly by keeping silent on vital issues (see \u201cJohn McCain\u201d), presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump also let Obama have it:<\/p>\n

\u201cDonald Trump on Sunday laced into President Obama for not mentioning \u2018radical Islam\u2019 in his address to the nation after the mass shooting in Orlando — a massacre the mogul said was \u2018only the beginning,\u2019 and the result of weak leadership,\u201d the New York Post reported the day after the shooting.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn his remarks today, President Obama disgracefully refused to even say the words \u2018Radical Islam,\u2019\u201d the presumptive presidential GOP nominee said in a statement. \u201cFor that reason alone, he should step down. If Hillary Clinton, after this attack, still cannot say the two words \u2018Radical Islam\u2019 she should get out of this race for the Presidency.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we do not get tough and smart real fast, we are not going to have a country anymore. Because our leaders are weak, I said this was going to happen — and it is only going to get worse. I am trying to save lives and prevent the next terrorist attack. We can\u2019t afford to be politically correct anymore,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

Stung by Trump\u2019s criticism, Mrs. Clinton relented and used the phrase \u201cradical Islamism\u201d on CNN the next day, asserting it means the same things as other terms she had used. In America\u2019s prisons, they have a term for the kind of obedient puppy Mrs. Clinton thus became for Mr. Trump. I predict that day will be seen as the turning point in their race. <\/p>\n

Trump, who has called for a ban on Muslims entering the U.S. and the destruction of ISIS, said all Americans need to be protected from \u201cRadical Islamic Terrorism — which has no place in an open and tolerant society. . . . Radical Islam advocates hate for women, gays, Jews, Christians and all Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, the Islamic State has repeatedly executed gay people and released videos showing their gruesome executions. <\/p>\n

On the Monday following the shooting, the Islamic State\u2019s radio outlet called Omar Mateen \u201cone of the soldiers of the caliphate in America.\u201d Al-Bayan Radio, a media outlet for the extremist group, hailed the attack.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always said I have questions about Donald Trump\u2019s familiarity with important issues, and his commitment to the Constitutional principles of liberty and limited government. I particularly have concerns he might embrace economically devastating trade protectionism in preference to free trade and free markets.<\/p>\n

But here he has a winning issue. Americans are sick and appalled at this pussy-footing, this Politically Correct Dance of the Seven Euphemisms, this refusal to acknowledge and deal with murderous radical Islamic terrorist scum by an America-hating president who has written that he finds no sound more beautiful than the call to prayer from an Islamic minaret. <\/p>\n

Trump told NBC’s “Today\u201d on the Monday after the shooting that “there’s something going on” that explains Obama’s refusal to use the phrase “radical Islamic terrorism.”<\/p>\n

“I’ll tell you what, we have a president that refuses to use the term, he refuses to say it,” Trump said in a speech last Dec. 3 to the Republican Jewish Coalition. “There’s something going on with him that we don’t know about.” <\/p>\n

Several Florida politicians, including State Rep. Dennis Baxley, running to represent The Villages in the Florida Senate, immediately (and correctly) faulted gun-free zones in the shooting in Orlando.<\/p>\n

The Belleview Republican has long opposed gun-free zones, including nightclubs that serve alcohol. Baxley contended that had someone at the club been armed, the gunman could have been stopped much sooner.<\/p>\n

Baxley will square off in the Aug. 30 GOP primary against state Rep. Marlene O\u2019Toole and David Gee.<\/p>\n

And yes, there\u2019s an organization that encourages gay Americans to become responsible gun owners. Regardless of your own sexual orientation, find and encourage a Pink Pistols chapter near you.<\/p>\n

Vin Suprynowicz was for 20 years a columnist and editorial writer for the daily Las Vegas Review-Journal. He blogs at www.vinsuprynowicz.com <\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"1300x731\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(A version of the following column runs in the Aug. 10 issue of “Firearms News” — formerly “Shotgun News” — on newsstands this week.) Quick: Among all America\u2019s 20,000 overlapping \u201cgun control\u201d laws, which had an impact on the number of deaths when Islamic terrorist Omar Mir Seddique Mateen -\u2013 the wife-beating, ISIS-supporting, bi-sexual son […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[63,8,12,77,46,22,61,51,75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2016-election","category-2nd-amendment","category-common-defense","category-islam","category-law-enforcement","category-media","category-religion","category-self-defense","category-terror"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pWqFl-SK","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3394"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3448,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3394\/revisions\/3448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}