Mass Shooting at Orlando Club

[Dan Murphy]

Beyond Tragic !!!!! how does one get an assault rifle outside of the military, police ?

Lax gun laws contribute. Not the total reason, but certainly contributory.

Prayers for the wounded, along with families and friends, God speed for the victims who have been murdered.

 

[CPanther95]

The shooter was born in Florida, his parents are from Afghanistan.

No bombs, just guns.

50 dead from a single shooter is literally unbelievable. It must have been extremely well planned and the venue must have lent itself to trapping it's patrons in a confined area with no way to escape en masse.

 

[JPDtheJD]

This is horrible.

 

[CPanther95]

Lax gun laws contribute. Not the total reason, but certainly contributory.

Something tells me this shooter wasn't too concerned about our gun laws considering he broke plenty of them to carry this out.

 

[Christine]

50 dead from a single shooter is literally unbelievable. It must have been extremely well planned and the venue must have lent itself to trapping it's patrons in a confined area with no way to escape en masse.

Exactly. And with the correct weaponry, in mass shootings the bulk of the fatalities occur within minutes. In my own "personal" mass shooting 12 people were killed in something like 20 minutes. Our building is huge and well spread out. I can only imagine in a nightclub you can do a lot of damage VERY quickly.

 

[5DisneyNuts]

Many LGBT friends in the Orlando area - prayers are with the families, the injured and the community.
So very tragic.

I wish the Imam that spoke at the press conference used his time to denounce the calls for violence from the radical groups during Ramadan and call for the community to come together in peace against these animals.

 

[LisaR]

50 dead from a single shooter is literally unbelievable. It must have been extremely well planned and the venue must have lent itself to trapping it's patrons in a confined area with no way to escape en masse.

I have to wonder if "friendly fire" accounted for some of these victims? It doesn't seem like one shooter could cause this many deaths and injuries. Am I wrong? I know you know more about guns. Is that really possible with the type he had?

I'm also unclear on the timeline. My understanding is there was gunfire exchanged outside the nightclub between the shooter and a police officer. The shooter then went into the nightclub where these people were held hostage for three hours. Did all of these casualties happen in the beginning? I know it's too early to have all the details so I'll be waiting for more information.

So sad and senseless.

 

[thedonduck]

Initial shots were at 2:02
Cops went in at about 5am. Many hostages were holed up in there the entire time. There is a good chance some were killed by friendly fire, but the vast majority were probably killed by the shooter.
The officer was shot in the head but saved by his Kevlar helmet. He was injured in the face from fragments.

 

[Irish_Mike]

I have to wonder if "friendly fire" accounted for some of these victims? It doesn't seem like one shooter could cause this many deaths and injuries. Am I wrong? I know you know more about guns. Is that really possible with the type he had?

Nightclubs are, oftentimes, very small and cramped venues - plus people who were there are saying that the bulk of the gunfire happened while music was playing.

With the type that he had (A semi-automatic from what I understand), it would be very easy for him to injury and kill many people in quick succession.

 

[MPB82]

lisa you are completely wrong and your post assumes friendly fire.

An assault rifle can shoot hundreds of rounds per minute, depending on the clip, with a crowded night club and a possible bottle neck of the crowd 50 people could be murdered in seconds with out a second of training.

Please do not assume friendly fire without any knowledge of the fire arms and situation at hand. This is what causes a lot of animosity towards law enforcement

 

[thedonduck]

It's a dance club. A lot of people in a small area seems like it would lend to a pretty easy target for multiple causalities. Add in the length of time before the officers could get in and many probably bled to death and my guess is many more won't make it through surgery.

 

[belle032]

We no longer live in Orlando, but have many LGBT friends there. Many frequent that club. While I am so thankful none of our friends were there I know that so many others cannot say the same. Such a sickening, horrific, completely avoidable tragedy. There are no words that can make it better. But for what it's worth, my heart goes out to those affected and the city of Orlando.

 

[thedonduck]

The PD shot what sounded like 100 some rounds based on witness videos. There is a chance some were injured or killed by friendly fire. But my guess is most were already killed by the shooter.

 

[CPanther95]

I have to wonder if "friendly fire" accounted for some of these victims? It doesn't seem like one shooter could cause this many deaths and injuries. Am I wrong? I know you know more about guns. Is that really possible with the type he had?

I'm also unclear on the timeline. My understanding is there was gunfire exchanged outside the nightclub between the shooter and a police officer. The shooter then went into the nightclub where these people were held hostage for three hours. Did all of these casualties happen in the beginning? I know it's too early to have all the details so I'll be waiting for more information.

So sad and senseless.

You'd need the targets to stay in the shooter's line of fire for a ridiculously long period of time and he'd have to go totally unopposed (or be in a location where people couldn't get to him). The 50 dead, 50 injured is also a ridiculous ratio considering that even trained police officers have a low hit rate, and most single gunshot wounds are not fatal.

There's definitely something missing from the equation.

 

[thedonduck]

Disagree. It is a night club with a lot of people in a small area and really loud music. Wouldn't be hard for a shooter to get in and kill and injure a lot in a short period of time.

 

[LisaR]

lisa you are completely wrong and your post assumes friendly fire.

An assault rifle can shoot hundreds of rounds per minute, depending on the clip, with a crowded night club and a possible bottle neck of the crowd 50 people could be murdered in seconds with out a second of training.

Please do not assume friendly fire without any knowledge of the fire arms and situation at hand. This is what causes a lot of animosity towards law enforcement

Give me a break, please! I'm not assuming anything. I thought I made it clear that I didn't understand. I don't know guns and I didn't think that one gun would be capable of that much devastation. I'm trying to understand. Maybe cut a little slack here. Not in the best of moods right now and trying to make sense of this senseless act. I know quite a few kids who hang out at that club. So far all but one have been accounted for. Not the best of mornings around here.

 

[longboard55]

California is passing a law to outlaw removable magazines. Seems like a really good idea. They seem to have no use other than mass shootings

 

[LisaR]

You'd need the targets to stay in the shooter's line of fire for a ridiculously long period of time and he'd have to go totally unopposed (or be in a location where people couldn't get to him). The 50 dead, 50 injured is also a ridiculous ratio considering that even trained police officers have a low hit rate, and most single gunshot wounds are not fatal.

There's definitely something missing from the equation.

Thanks! Just trying to have a better understanding of this...not that that is even possible with something so horrific.

 

[CPanther95]

lisa you are completely wrong and your post assumes friendly fire.

An assault rifle can shoot hundreds of rounds per minute, depending on the clip, with a crowded night club and a possible bottle neck of the crowd 50 people could be murdered in seconds with out a second of training.

Please do not assume friendly fire without any knowledge of the fire arms and situation at hand. This is what causes a lot of animosity towards law enforcement

Somebody here said it was reported he had an AR15, not an assault rifle. An assault rifle could fire 700 - 900 rounds a minute, but with a 30 round mag, it would be emptied in a few seconds and the accuracy would be horrendous. This was a guy with a rifle picking people off one shot at a time, there's no indication of a belt fed machine gun that was just mowing down an entire group of people.

 

[CAS239]

Beyond Tragic !!!!! how does one get an assault rifle outside of the military, police ?

Anyone that can pass a background check can go buy an AR15 or an AK47 in Florida. The ones you can buy aren't automatic like those in the military. Their simply rifles, but still assault rifles nonetheless. Then add in the high caliber bullets that you can buy, you can do some damage.

However this shooter appeared to have an illegal automatic AR15. He didn't buy this at his local gun store unless be illegally modified it. I imagine he got it off the black market.