US presidential elections; the Orlando challenge

US presidential elections; the Orlando challenge

FPJ BureauUpdated: Thursday, May 30, 2019, 02:56 PM IST
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People embrace during a vigil outside the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts for the mass shooting victims at the Pulse nightclub June 13, 2016 in Orlando, Florida. The American gunman who launched a murderous assault on a gay nightclub in Orlando was radicalized by Islamist propaganda, officials said Monday, as they grappled with the worst terror attack on US soil since 9/11. / AFP PHOTO / Brendan Smialowski |

The horrific homophobic slaughter of nearly 50 people in a gay bar in Orlando, Florida, on Sunday is bound to further inject low-grade invective into the on-going presidential campaign in the US.

Given that the 29-year-old Omar Mir Seddique Mateen was the son of first generation émigrés from Afghanistan and harboured extremist Islamic sympathies is bound to embolden someone like Donald Trump to try and feed into the latent fear of the voters of the Islamic State and other allied jihadi terrorist groups.

Moderation and good sense would be hard to defend from the stump as the rival presidential candidates criss-cross the country for the November vote. Ultimately, the task of retaining balance and a sense of perspective in the over-the-top rhetoric from Trump will fall on ordinary voters. It is important for wider global peace and security that the man who tenants the White House next has a stable head on his shoulders and is not given to extremist opinions and thoughts himself.

In a way, though the Americans alone will elect the next president but the entire world has a deep stake in their choice. Hence the fear that the Orlando gunman might have swung the presidential election at least a wee bit in favour of the loose-cannon Trump.

Mercifully, no evidence has surfaced thus far to link the killer to the IS, even if he harboured sympathies for it, these were not the reason why he laid  siege to the well-known lesbian, gay, bisexual and transvestite watering hole in Orlando. Apparently, he was disgusted with what he considered abnormal sexual behaviour, the trigger for the Sunday attack being his sighting two men kissing publicly on the lips.

Armed with automatic assault rifles and a couple of magazines he barged into the crowded bar and began to shoot people at random. By the time a Special Weapons and Tactics team neutralised him, fifty innocent people were dead while nearly as many lay injured. The bloodbath was the biggest terror attack since the destruction of the Twin Towers in 2001.

But, it should be noted, this was not a terrorist act masterminded by an Islamist group, even if the opportunistic IS rushed pro forma to take credit. Lone-wolf attacks on innocents are now a regular hazard in the US. Unhinged loners, and/or disgruntled individuals nursing some grudge against the world have opened fire in shopping malls and schools and colleges at regular intervals. Easy access to firearms of all types and sizes without any pre-screening and virtually without a check on the mental state of the buyers is the obvious reason why maniacs in a fit of momentary madness have killed and maimed innocents at random.

Yet, so strong is the gun lobby that it would not countenance any restraint on the sale and possession of firearms. The Orlando killer was allowed to own a couple of automatic rifles even though he had a history of violence and high temper. He was twice questioned by the authorities for extremist sympathies but both times allowed to go free for want of concrete evidence. If such a man could be allowed to own assault weapons, there should be no surprise at what he did on Sunday in a gay night club in Orlando.

Ultimately, the failure of the US to exercise some check, some restraint on the sale of guns without mandatory pre-screening underlines the power of the National Rifle Association which fiercely defends the right of Americans to possess arms. The Second Amendment which empowers people to ‘keep and bear arms’ is a huge obstacle.

Moderate politicians keen to introduce some checks on the sale of guns at least to the mentally unhinged and those with a criminal history have failed to make much headway. Horrific tragedies involving schoolchildren misusing their parents’ guns against their fellow students or a psychologically disturbed individual taking it out on his neighbours are not unknown in a country where gun possession is rampant.

Meanwhile, President Barack Obama in his first reaction to Sunday’s slaughter has called it as an act of terror and an act of hate. Democratic presumptive presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, has sympathised with the LGBT community, pledging to fight for its rights. But the presumptive Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, could not help patting himself on the back, saying that Orlando proves he was right about Islamic terrorism. Indeed, Orlando poses a new challenge to ordinary Americans that they do not allow themselves to be inveigled into electing someone like Trump who is himself a proven loose cannon and can well wreck the global order from inside the White House.

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