President Obama wasted no time highlighting the role firearms played in the Orlando terrorist attack that claimed 49 innocent lives and injured 53 more. The day of the attack, Obama called a press conference and said, "This is a further reminder of how easy it is for someone to get a weapon that lets them shoot people in a school or in a house of worship or a movie theater or in a nightclub. We have to decide if that’s the kind of country we want to be. And to actively do nothing is a decision as well.”
Obama -- who used his 2016 State of the Union address to call for more unity in American politics -- is notably avoiding rallying Americans against a common foe as occurred after 9/11. Instead, he's turned the terrorist attack into another divisive political issue.
Why? Here are 11 reasons:
1. The FBI dropped the ball — repeatedly. Twice the FBI investigated Mateen; once for expressing affinity for Islamist groups, and once for his connections to another Florida Muslim who became a suicide bomber in Syria (the two attended the same Fort Pierce mosque). The FBI determined both times he was not worth pursuing further.
2. The State Department — under Hillary Clinton's direction — spiked an investigation into the killer's mosque. The Islamic Center of Fort Pierce is connected to the Shariah Board of America and by extension the Institute of Islamic Education. A Department of Homeland Security investigation into the Institute of Islamic Education was quashed in 2011 after DHS/State Department's Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Office said it unfairly targeted Muslims, according to former DHS agent Philip Haney.
3. The Orlando attack marks the eighth significant terrorist attack during Obama's presidency. As his term enters its final months, it's clear Obama is increasingly focused on his legacy. Yet another terrorist attack is not how he wants to be remembered.
4. One of the gun shops where Omar Mateen sought "bulk ammo" found him suspicious and notified the FBI, which apparently failed to follow up the lead. In other words, the gun industry acted responsibly and the government dropped the ball.
5. Political correctness is another culprit. Mateen was employed by a security firm that protected various interests of the federal government. His coworkers raised alarms about his "homophobic and racial comments," but the management failed to act because they were afraid of being accused of discrimination.
6. More guns could have saved lives. After initially killing a handful of Pulse club goers, Omar Mateen held dozens more hostage for several hours. Over this time, the captive hostages waited helplessly as police negotiators attempted talking Mateen out of further carnage. Unfortunately they failed and he ultimately killed dozens more. Of course, if at least one of these club goers were armed, these lives might have been saved.
7. Despite having homosexual tendencies himself, Omar Mateen singled out gays for being in conflict with his radical Islamist worldview. His wife said he felt "strongly about homosexuality." His father, a supporter of the Afghan Taliban, regularly posted videos condemning homosexuality.
8. ISIS, the terror group to which Mateen pledged allegiance, was born during Obama's administration and, many argue, as a consequence of his rapid pullout of U.S. forces from Iraq. Every successful ISIS attack against America marks is another data point the president's critics can use to attack his foreign policy.
9. By conflating terrorist attacks with mass shootings, Obama shifts Orlando from a discussion of his record keeping America safe to a discussion about Congress' opposition toward expanding gun restrictions. Specifically the administration is using this attack to call for new restrictions on "powerful firearms," claiming that fewer lives would have been lost if Mateen had used more conventional weaponry. But is this true? If Mateen were denied his gun of choice but remained committed to carrying out an act of terror, it's logical to presume he would have sought explosives, chemical weapons, or other horrific instruments of death. The death toll could have thus been even worse.
10. Mateen boasted on Facebook an ISIS attack on American soil was imminent, yet despite the NSA's social media dragnet, his online threats failed to elicit any alarms. This follows reports that surfaced after the San Bernardino attack about a secret U.S. policy prohibiting security screeners from reviewing visa applicants' social media.
11. Mateen considered himself a religious warrior operating on behalf of the Islamic State. Despite his motive being so perfectly transparent, Obama called him "angry, disturbed, unstable" and insisted "we don't yet know" his "motivations." On Sunday, Attorney General Lynch said transcripts of Mateen's 911 calls are even going to be redacted for all discussion of his religious extremism.
Add up all of the above, and Orlando represents a comprehensive rebuke to the Obama Administration's central narrative about its efforts keeping America safe. Everything Obama has taken to arguing -- ISIS is in retreat, the term "radical Islam has no bearing on the terrorist threat facing Americans, Americans are at an increased threat due to insufficient gun control -- is being shown as wrong.
That's why President Obama wants to turn Orlando into another debate over gun control.