Last Sunday the world woke up with the deadliest mass shooting in US history.  At least 50 people were killed, and 53 wounded, many of them in grievous condition. Part of the media and some politicians are using this outrageous hate crime against LGBT people to inflame an Anti-Muslim rhetoric in the US. They seem not to understand how crazy (and dangerous) is allowing a person (of any religion) to buy an assault rifle and simple bring it home.

LGBT people are targeted in several countries. In fact, in 75 countries homosexuality is currently considered a crime (38 of them are part of the Commonwealth) (1).  Thus, it is clear that violence against LGBT is not something particular to the USA, and it is not linked with a specific religion or country.  Mass shooting, on the other hand, can be very much related to the USA. No other country suffers so much with this sort of violence.  There is data showing that while the U.S has 5% of world population, it had 31%of all public mass shooting (3).

Therefore, the suppose alliance of the shooter with ISIS should not be overestimated. In this shooting, the links are much weaker than in the recent events in Paris or Brussels. The shooter was an US citizen with clear deviance of moral and probably serious mental pathologies. According to his father, he was recently infuriated by two men kissing each other in Miami. His wife said he was abusive and violent. Even though he had no problem to buy and carry around an AR-15 rifle.

So again, as in many other shootings in the USA, people were killed because someone who wanted to inflict harm to others had no trouble getting guns. This was not the first attack against a minority in the USA, and certainly it will not be last. Civilians should not be allowed to carry assault rifles, in any circumstances. If people want to have guns to protect their life and property, this must to be done under a specific licence, that requires clear criminal history, and constant background checks, including moral and mental evaluations.  Otherwise, soon enough the collective hate crime that took place Orlando will be the second deadliest mass shooting in US history.

#GunControl #OrlandoStrong

(1) https://antigaylaws.org/

(2) http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/13/health/mass-shootings-in-america-in-charts-and-graphs-trnd/

(2) http://www.vox.com/2016/6/13/11923290/orlando-shooting-gun-violence-us

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