In the early morning hours of Sunday, June 12, a lone gunman entered “The Pulse,” a popular gay nightclub in Orlando, and promptly opened fire with an assault rifle and a handgun, killing 50 people and wounding another 53. The shooter, Omar Mateen, had recently declared his allegiance to ISIS before carrying out the deadly attack. While many are calling this what it clearly is, a terror attack, many on the left are determined to change the focus of the conversation to…you guessed it… gun control.
Ever since the San Bernardino shootings Obama and the left have been working very hard to move the focus away from radical Islamic terrorism, and onto…well, just about anything else. Now, however, we have another example of a terror attack occurring here at home, resulting in one of the bloodiest massacres in U.S. History. Instead of talking about how to make Americans safe from terrorist attacks, however, what is the left focusing on? Here’s a sample:
President Obama complains about the need for more gun laws. “This massacre is therefore a further reminder of how easy it is for someone to get their hands on a weapon that lets them shoot people in a school or a house of worship or a movie theater or a nightclub,” Obama said.
CNN is running a story about the new gun control calls prompted by this attack.
MSNBC’s Joy Reid says that the real point is not terrorism. She thinks that “we’re not getting to the core issue, which is how easy it is to get a gun.”
The Washington Post runs an entire story about “the key things to know about guns and mass shootings in America.”
Like a broken record, the left refuses to focus on terrorism, radical Islam, or the social and moral decay in this country they have facilitated as a root cause for increased violence. Instead they offer their Pavlovian response anytime a gun is fired and trot out their so-called “common-sense” gun laws that do nothing to stop gun violence. It doesn’t matter how many times you point out that none of their new gun laws, or even the existing gun laws for that matter, would have stopped what happened. All they can think about is how much better our lives would be if they could just take away everyone’s guns.
As my wife listened to the radio this afternoon, one of the talking heads was commenting about how having armed citizens at this nightclub would have just made things worse. I swear, every time I hear one of these idiots make a statement like that I just want to reach through the radio and shake them until the stupid drains out of their heads.
To the folks who think having armed citizens in that nightclub would have been a bad thing, I say this. Go and ask the families of any of the victims who died last night if they wish there was at least one brave citizen armed with a gun that night that could have at least had a chance to stop this fanatic before he murdered over 50 people. Go ask one of the 53 people that were injured if they wish that someone could have stepped up to defend their lives.
Better yet. Imagine you were there that night yourself. Now ask yourself as you face down a madman intent on ending your life. Would you want a gun in your hand or not?
There are two other points I wanted to make concerning this story:
First: During the Ferguson riots I heard many people, including voices on the right, calling for local police to do away with all their “military-style” riot gear in order to make the public “feel better” about assembling in the streets to protest. Well thank God the City of Orlando didn’t listen to that advice, as an officer was shot in the head last night while engaging the terrorist. The only thing that saved his life was the tactical helmet he was wearing. Here is an example of what the assault team was wearing to engage the shooter:
Photo: From the AP
We need to stop worrying about what police are wearing and how it makes rioting protesters “feel.” I don’t care how they feel. If there is a terrorist attack, or an armed robbery, or a bunch of rioters (excuse me…protesters) near me or my family, I don’t care if the police are wearing full-on Iron Man armor. I want them equipped to take on the bad guys and do it safely because the faster they deal with the threat, the more people’s lives and property will be saved.
Second: When Bill Clinton was in office we had a series of terrorist attacks on Americans, including attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen, and the World Trade Center bombing in 1993. You could also argue that the weakness of the Clinton administration led to the boldness of the terrorists to pull off the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
After the 9/11 attacks George W. Bush invaded Afghanistan and Iraq, taking the fight to the terrorists and ending state sponsorship of terrorism in at least two Middle Eastern countries. Our forceful response even frightened Muammar Qaddafi from being an enemy of the U.S. into a reluctant ally against terrorism. Number of terror attacks on U.S. soil during that time? Zero.
Under the Obama administration we have removed our troops from Afghanistan and Iraq, kowtowed to Iran, and released terrorists from Guantanamo Bay that have…of course… gone right back to terrorism. We have effectively lost our place of leadership in the world. During that time we have had numerous terror attacks around the world, including at least three on American soil (the Fort Hood shootings, San Bernardino, and now Orlando).
The moral of the story? Bullies respect only one thing – strength. When a bully sees weakness, he attacks. ISIS and other terrorists are a collection of bullies, plain and simple. If you want to stop them, send the best military in the world to hunt them down and kill them, wherever they are.
I know there are voices on both the left and the right that won’t want to hear that, but it’s true. Do you want to keep terrorist attacks from happening on American soil? Send the U.S. Military to the Middle East to kill the terrorists over there. Do you want to protect Christians from being slaughtered by ISIS? Send the U.S. Military to the Middle East to wipe ISIS off the face of the earth. Do you want the flood of refugees to America and Europe from the Middle East to stop? Send the U.S. Military over there to kill the terrorists causing the refugee problem in the first place.
I’m sure I will get plenty of responses about how we shouldn’t be the world’s police force, and that’s fine. But guess what? Someone has to do it. Someone has to be the leader of the free world. Barack Obama has decided he doesn’t want the United States to lead the world, and has pulled us back, leaving a power vacuum. Well, nature abhors a vacuum and when one appears, especially a power vacuum, all sorts of people will try and fill it. Most of them, unfortunately, are not the altruistic force for good the United States has been for the most part.
The United States can either lead, or it can follow, because if we don’t lead someone else surely will try.
I know which choice I prefer.
