Orlando shooting: Tragedy embedded in irony

There are a few takeaways from the Florida massacre. For one, Omar Mateen, the Afghan-American had chosen the time and occasion for his assault carefully. He wanted to inflict maximum collateral damage. In the wee hours of Sunday, when he opened fire at the gay night club in Orlando, the venue was packed with at least 300 patrons. The second, and more important lesson, is rich in irony: The biggest threat to the lives of US citizens comes from within the country, from its own citizens. And, the country has only itself to blame for that. 

America might have stringent checks at the airports and checkposts; it can seal its borders to stop illegal immigration. But, it will continue to remain vulnerable as long as it kowtows to the Machiavellian powers of the gun lobby. The National Rifle Association (NRA) has empowered deranged minds like Mateen to kill with abandon. A bloodthirsty gun culture is their talisman. This is not what the country’s founding fathers had in mind when they legitimised the owning of firearms. Back then, in the midst of American War of Independence in 1776, the right came into being for the militias fighting the British for independence. Nearly two-and-a-half centuries later, the rich and powerful firearms industry — more influential than the tobacco lobby — has thwarted every attempt at stricter controls over gun-ownership.

Mateen proved to be smarter than the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the law-enforcement agency. In 2013 and 2014, during interrogation, he had hoodwinked the authorities into believing he wasn’t a threat to national security. Mateen knew the system and he stayed below the radar till the fateful Sunday. If he was truly an ISIS sympathiser, as has been claimed in some news reports, then the Islamic outfit has found a way to bleed the US with a thousand cuts. Apparently normal citizens on the surface with murderous intent lurking within will make the job easier for the IS, which cannot match US’s firepower in traditional warfare. Mateen had even displayed unusual behaviour, but it was behind closed doors with his former wife bearing the brunt. The immediate trigger for his mayhem was a gay couple kissing in front of his family. He chose to teach the gay community a lesson — because Islam forbids homosexuality — by killing revellers. 

Sunday’s incident comes at a time when the federal states in the US have been showing increasing openness to acknowledge that homosexuality is a choice rather than an aberration. That LGBTs are normal human beings with their individual sexual moorings. However, conservatives in every religion will demonstrate hostility to such proclivities. Mateen took it to an extreme level, though, according to his family, he wasn’t overtly religious or orthodox —  a logic that fails to pass muster.

Sunday’s bloodbath leaves the US government with virtually no option if it’s truly committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of its people. It has to put an end to gun culture, rein in the NRA, and to give legitimacy to its actions should hold a referendum on the issue. But, there is little chance of any of that happening right away with the presidential elections on the horizon. If Republican Donald Trump gets elected to the highest office, it would be a huge setback for anti-gun activists. 

This is also the time when the US government needs to exercise restraint while dealing with the Muslim community within the country. The last thing it wants is home-grown jihadis. Police excesses in the aftermath of the shooting can turn a few fence-sitters into radicals. It can’t be the fault of the Muslim community that Mateen was deranged enough to kill people because he hated their sexual orientation. No religion, least of all Islam, teaches its adherents to kill unarmed people.