A top National Rifle Association official argued that tougher gun control laws would not have prevented Sunday’s deadly mass shooting in Orlando, and that the Obama administration’s “political correctness” allowed the shooter to be successful.
“They are desperate to create the illusion that they’re doing something to protect us because their policies can’t and won’t keep us safe,” Chris Cox, the executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action, wrote in a USA Today op-ed published early Tuesday. He specifically cited President Obama and Hillary Clinton’s renewed calls for gun control laws.
“The terrorist in Orlando had been investigated multiple times by the FBI. He had a government-approved security guard license with a contractor for the Department of Homeland Security. Yet his former co-workers reported violent and racist comments,” Cox wrote. “Unfortunately, the Obama administration’s political correctness prevented anything from being done about it.”
According to Cox, stricter gun laws didn’t help deter the terror attacks in San Bernardino, Brussels and Paris.
“Repeating the same thing but expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. Law-abiding gun owners are tired of being blamed for the acts of madmen and terrorists,” he wrote.
Semi-automatic guns “are the most popular firearms sold in America for sport-shooting, hunting and self-defense,” Cox explained. Omar Mateen, the shooter in the Orlando attack, used a legally purchased .223 caliber semi-automatic rifle and a 9mm semiautomatic pistol.
“It’s time for us to admit that radical Islam is a hate crime waiting to happen. The only way to defeat them is to destroy them — not destroy the right of law-abiding Americans to defend ourselves,” Cox concluded.
Mateen was interviewed twice by the FBI, but both investigations were inconclusive. He legally purchased the guns he used in his early Sunday morning attack on Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., which left 49 dead and 53 others injured.
Mateen was killed in a shootout with police. His motives are still under investigation, as there is a report he pledged allegiance to the Islamic State during a 911 call with police during the attack, as well as a report that he was gay and frequented Pulse.
The attack on the gay nightclub was the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.
