He simply bought an assault rifle — legally — for as little as $800 and a pistol in a Florida gun shop, then walked into the Pulse gay nightclub, which was filled with some 320 people, and opened fire early Sunday, killing 49 and injuring scores of others.
The Orlando massacre suggests once again that terrorists are turning to simpler tactics that take advantage of lax U.S. gun laws to unleash attacks, experts warned Monday.
“I think it definitely reflects an increasing emphasis on decentralized methods of conducting terrorist attacks,” said Prof. Jonathan Hafetz of the Seton Hall University Law School.
“An organization isn’t trying to order people, it is trying to encourage them to make these attacks. Part of it is exploiting weaknesses within the U.S., including the absence of effective gun control laws. The proliferation of firearms in the U.S. makes these attacks easier.”
Security consultant Anthony Roman said the spate of recent mass shootings in America — like the one in San Bernardino, Calif. — is the result of the success the U.S. has had in wiping out terror forces overseas.
“It is easier (to pull off attacks like the one in Orlando) and it is an unintended consequence of our success against Al Qaeda,” Roman said. “We have reduced their allure, we have reduced their numbers. In Europe and here, they have had to move to an easier, simpler strategy, aided by people inspired by them.”
The result, Roman said, is “we will see more of (such attacks) in the future.”
Gun stocks shoot upward after Orlando shooting
Indeed, a large number of mass shooters in recent years have slaughtered Americans by buying their guns legally. Congress’ inaction in banning assault weapons, like the AR-15-type rifle used in the Orlando attack, and lobbying by the NRA have made it easier for wannabe terrorists to buy military-grade weapons and carry out attacks.
In addition to Mateen, who pledged allegiance to ISIS in a 911 call to cops from the club, Syed Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 29, killed 14 people last Dec. 2 at a holiday party in San Bernardino with legally purchased weapons.
Last June 17, racist Dylann Roof killed nine African-Americans in a Charleston, S.C., church with a gun he had legally bought. A background check failed to catch his prior arrest record.
White power activist Wade Page, 40, killed six people in a Sikh temple in Wisconsin on Aug. 5, 2012 — again with a handgun he legally purchased.
In carrying out the 9/11 attacks, the 19 Al Qaeda hijackers similarly took advantage of a whole other set of lax controls at that time related to airport and aircraft security. The hijackers were able to get box cutters through security and force their way through cockpit doors.
Wayne LaPierre heads the NRA, which has pushed lawmakers to block bans on assault weapons.
Wayne LaPierre heads the NRA, which has pushed lawmakers to block bans on assault weapons. (NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)
These days, a trip to the local gun store is easier — and cheaper — experts said.
Obama: 'Crazy' how easy Orlando gunman got his guns
“I would say that given there is a kind of modus operandi for terrorists and mass shooters, the overwhelming majority of mass shooters have had an easy time purchasing the firearms they used,” said Jonathan Metzl, a professor of sociology and psychiatry at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.
“I think history is a great indicator. We should do everything we can to prevent people from getting high-volume assault weapons.”
Victor Asal, a political science professor at the University at Albany, said for a terrorist organization, an attack like this “is about as cheap as you can get.”
“For a lot of people, guns are much easier to use,” he said. “You can’t go into a store and just buy explosives. With an assault rifle, you can kill a lot of people.”
He wasn’t sure what the solution should be, saying he’d prefer to leave it to the politicians.
“If someone is on a terror watch list, should they be able to buy a gun? I don’t think so,” added Asal.
Clinton calls for gun reforms after Orlando attack
“My inclination would be to focus on assault rifles to make it harder for them to be bought.”
Roman said that while the intelligence services are good at “scrubbing” communications traffic for terror networks, they’re not as effective when it comes to detecting loners.
“We’re always looking and demanding fast, easy, well-defined solutions, and this is such a complex problem,” he said.
Experts said trying to label these shootings either foreign or domestic terrorism somehow misses the point. They did agree that the proliferation of guns in this country has exacerbated the problem.
“Having this hyperfocus on the terrorism link is misguided,” Hafetz said.
“Some mass shootings have links to terrorism .. . and some don’t. The most important thing is to focus on eliminating these weapons of mass killing. The primary problem is the availability of guns.”
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