Orlando Shooting Victims: Gun Control Legislation Introduced To Prevent Shooters Like Omar Mateen From Purchasing Guns — Will It Pass This Time?
Amid the deadliest mass shooting in the history of the United States, which left 50 people dead in an Orlando nightclub, members of congress are calling for tighter gun control legislation Sunday.
The mass shooting also qualifies for perhaps the most violent hate crime carried out in recent history as the assailant, Omar Mateen, 29, targeted a gay club.
Under current gun control legislation, civilians with felonies cannot purchase a gun. However, those convicted with misdemeanor hate crimes are able to.
Democratic Senator, Robert Casey, said he will announce gun control legislation tomorrow that would ban anyone convicted of a misdemeanor hate crime from owning a firearm.
Casey will announce his gun control legislation tomorrow in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, (his home state) before members of the LGBT community.
Even some Republicans have demanded tighter gun control legislation as of late in light of recent shootings. However even their conservative efforts fall short of gaining the necessary political momentum to become law.
The recurring theme is that even a minuscule change to current gun control legislation — especially when it involves limiting gun purchase — will be viewed as a threat to Americans’ constitutional rights — backed by the gun lobby.
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Other Democrats also called for Congress tighten gun control legislation as well.
Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, said the mass shooting will most certainly spark debate, as it usually does, but no action, or new gun control legislation, will be set in motion.
The bottom line is that we allow dangerous people to buy guns in America and that has got to change
Democratic Senator Chris Murphy said that Congress is just as guilty as the shooters themselves if they continue to not revise gun control legislation.
Congress has become complicit in these murders by its total, unconscionable deafening silence. This doesn’t have to happen but this epidemic will continue without end if Congress continues to sit on its hands and do nothing – again.
Murphy, a Democratic Senator in Connecticut, worked for better gun control legislator as Adam Lanza killed 20 children and six staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown back in 2012.
Omar Mateen, 29, is a U.S. citizen whose immigrated from Afghanistan. Like the Newtown shooter, Lanza, Mateen did his killing with an AR-15 assault rifle. In addition it was reported that he was carrying a handgun and potentially explosives.
Presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump claims that Mateen was inspired by ISIS, although no evidence of a connection between the terrorist group and Mateen has been found.
Childhood friends of Omar’s claim that he never showed any disdain towards gays or a proclivity for engaging in terror activities.
There was never any "blatant expression of homophobia" from #Orlando suspect, friend says https://t.co/YA7vwZcoXr https://t.co/2huiXGGn7U
— CBS News (@CBSNews) June 13, 2016
According to the FBI, Mateen had been interviewed and gone on record claiming to support militant groups, however this did not show any evidence of criminal activity prior to the Orlando shooting.
What do you think Congress should do about gun control legislation? Would more strict legislation be a violation of constitutional rights?
[Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images]
