With the recent Orlando attacks there has been much talk about the gunman's background as well as the timeline of events of that happened this past Sunday, and needless to say there's also been a fair amount of misinformation and polarization surrounding this tragedy. Needless to say there have been arguments on both sides of the issue that are based on shaky information so I thought I'd clear some things up about this.

Family:

To start with Omar was the son of an Afghani immigrant, Seddique Mateen, who announced his candidacy for president of Afghanistan. He's also publicly announced his support for the Taliban. Why is this relevant? Well it's important to know what kind of environment he was raised in, and when you have a father who is slightly delusional and openly supports the Taliban its hard to brush that aside as a source of potential influence on his son. To his credit he does seem genuinely upset that his son did what he did.

We also have his Ex-wife, Sitora Yusufiy, to consider aswell. From what we know Omar was incredibly emotionally unstable back in 2009. During this time Omar also expressed his disdain for homosexuals in moments of anger, he also owned a firearm at this point in time as well, this becomes important later.

Finally we have Omar's current wife, Noor Salman. A woman who may or may not have played a part in the events that happened over the weekend. She admitted to the FBI that she drove with Omar to the nightclub as well as with him to buy ammunition. She even pleaded with him not to go through with it allegedly, which if this is true she could be charged as an accomplice, and seeing how she has turned up missing and was given access to his bank accounts and life insurance policies it's incredibly likely she was in on it.

Background:

First things first, we know he was a massive homophobe, that much should be obvious at this point. However there still seems to be some denial about the role his religion played in cultivating that homophobia, with people saying that his religion had nothing to do with it. Which is completely absurd when Sheikh Farokh Sekaleshfar gave a talk calling for the death of homosexuals back in March outside of Orlando, only to later to contradict himself saying the massacre could in no way be justified Islamically, in which I can only assume he meant that the killing took place during Ramadan because the Quran is incredibly clear on the issue of homosexuality. Couple that with the fact he was a closeted homosexual who frequented the Pulse nightclub and we have a guy whose clearly struggling with his identity. There's also the fact that the Mosque Omar prayed at was also attended by a man who went on to become a suicide bomber in Syria. Seddique Mateen also served as vice president to the Mosque and both were seen at the mosque the same weFirstek as the shooting. So to claim that Islam had nothing to do with this massacre is an incredible understatement. I believe the best explanation of this was that Omar acted out of a sense of self hatred that has been instilled in him through his religious community. This is not unique to just Islam, however what is unique to many Islamic communities is the fact that homosexuality is seen as a crime that needs to be punished rather than as a sin that must be atoned for.

We also have the fact that he worked for the largest security firm in the world which as you could imagine comes with a pretty intensive pre employment screening. This screening was done not just once in 2007, but again in 2013 when the company learned he was under FBI investigation. An Investigation that was prompted by a reasonable suspicion that Omar Mateen may have some connections to terror groups based on him saying he had family connections to Al-Qaeda, with the FBI believing he had deeper connections to the aforementioned Syrian suicide bomber. This prompted G4S to move him from an armed post at a courthouse to an unarmed post at gated community. However they did not disarm him or revoke any of his licensing. There's also the fact that during his time at G4s he made Homophobic and racially charged comments to co-workers, and it was apparently bad enough to prompt one of his co-workers to quit, even after complaining to his employer multiple times.

As for the FBI dropping the Investigation against him there have been multiple reasons given for doing so. One being that the FBI's policies say that open investigations are limited to six months but the agent assigned to a case may get a six month extension if it's believed there is more to find. Its important to note that during those ten months he was under investigation he was placed on a watch list, which had he not been removed from that list at the end of the investigation the FBI would have been notified if he tried to purchase a firearm. Something that ultimately happened in the most inefficient way possible.

Purchasing the Firearms:

This is the part of every tragedy that politicians love to politicize, so I thought we'd give it its own separate examination.

First thing to note is that Florida has no wait times for long rifles and a three day wait time for handguns. Now you may be thinking, "well what the hell, why do they not make you wait to buy an assault rifle?" and I'll tell you its because handguns are actually far deadlier than long rifles when you look at the crime stats. You also do not need a weapons permit to purchase a long gun, which I could understand why people would be up in arms over that fact, and i agree that may need amending. However you still need to pass a basic background check, and this is where i see many people who fall for the "but he was on a watch list" line, which if you remember he was taken off of that list in 2014. He was also reported to the FBI by a separate gun store where he tried to purchase bulk ammo and body armor, however since they turned him away they couldn't get his name to the FBI.

So with everything we know about this guy who is at fault for letting Mateen purchase his weapons? I place blame on the FBI, because had they not taken his name off of a watch list they would have been notified immediately when he went to purchase his weapons. In my opinion there needs to be a third list where a suspect is no longer under direct surveillance but they still may pose a threat to security.

And for all those people who are still saying that we need to ban assault weapons

This is not classified as an assault rifle

Despite being functionally equivalent to this

both are chambered for .223 ammunition and are locked in semi automatic only. But when you take the first gun and make a few modifications

and suddenly it's illegal. Despite it still being functionally identical. So if you ask me or anyone whose been around guns the current laws concerning assault rifles are completely nonsensical.

To conclude this whole story is far more complex than most mainstream sources are portraying it as. In fact its so complex I may have to write a follow up piece to this one going over the events of June 12 aswell as my final thoughts on the matter. Stay tuned.