We're all, the whole country, trying to understand what happened at the Pulse nightclub. But I think we all have to be careful that in attempting to "understand" what happened, that we don't begin to fall victim to EXCUSING what happened, because he "may have" been a conflicted, closeted, Islamic gay man, of middle eastern descent, with a heavy parental and cultural bias against gays.
There is a vast difference between an explanation for criminal and terroristic behavior, and the mission creep of political correctness that wants to demand empathetic justification for that behavior. The killer, the terrorist, is not a sympathetic figure. He does not deserve ANY sympathy or empathy. HE is NOT the VICTIM, or even "A" victim.
He knew EXACTLY what he was doing, and why. Yes, he may indeed be deeply conflicted about where he fits in between 2 cultures, and may have conflicted loyalty, and conflicted sexuality. His own father likely initiated and nurtured the radicalism and extremism, and anger and conflict, that lead to this guy becoming a terrorist. He MURDERED 49 souls in cold blood, and tried to kill another 50+. That has to remain the focus. So what if he was gay and conflicted?? Gays don't get a pass, or an excuse, for premeditated mass murder-- even closeted, conflicted, muslim gays.The ultimate in "PC" is to begin to build empathetic discussions about this man because he was gay and muslim and conflicted, and lessen the impact of what he did. To begin to excuse it, in the guise of "understanding" why he did it. He was pure evil and criminal. We can't forget that. The time to try to "humanize" him is long past, IMO. Nothing about this killer was civilized, and his memory deserves no empathy or sympathy. IMO.
We have to be extremely careful when bandying about "mentally ill" labels. He may indeed have a narcissistic, or borderline, or sociopathic, or bi-polar personality disorder. Who cares? None of that makes him "not responsible" for what he did. AND--no amount of mental health care (before or after a heinous crime) can "fix" personality disorders-- no pills, meds, or "talk therapy" fixes those kind of people. None of that is a LEGALLY justifiable defense. He wasn't psychotic, or mentally deficient in a legal definition way. He may be depressed and hate unicorns, puppies, kittens, and rainbows, too. But he is still a KILLER, a TERRORIST, and a dead criminal, who vastly pre-planned this carnage and horror, knew exactly what he was doing, knew right from wrong, and tried to inflict the worst damage he could.
Families with little kids at Downtown Disney/ Disney Springs could have been massacred, instead of the gay nightclub. That would have been equally atrocious. Yes, gays were the population "this" time, but don't for a minute think that he wouldn't have taken out others if he could have, IMO. The nightclub patrons were soft targets, and convenient for him and his motives at this particular point in time. Yes, he hated gays, and probably loathed that part of himself-- but he hated a lot of other non-gay people, too, for being non-believer infidels, IMO. Maybe he thinks allah will give him a "disney fast pass" to heaven for killing gays during ramadan, and voicing allegiance to ISIS.
Either way, I'm very glad and thankful he's dead. And I truly believe it's ESSENTIAL that we change the way we deal with islamic terrorism at every level of law enforcement and government, so that we can do better preventing the next occurrence-- because we all know there WILL be a next time. I do think we absolutely NEED an official declaration of "war" against ISIS, and ISIS-inspired terrorism, so that we can begin to work to get a handle on what's happening inside our own country, and put a stop to it. That will change the way we do surveillance, and handle would-be terrorists. We have to do this--it is absolutely essential to the safety and security of every citizen. As it is, this ridiculous insistence that these acts are "just" a matter for law enforcement when they happen, is what is just setting the stage for more killing. We have to be pro-active to prevent terrorism, not re-active.
I could care less what was going on in this killer's psyche-- what I'm absolutely sure of is that his ACTIONS were inspired by, and motivated by, his islamic extremism, and his professed loyalty to ISIS. That needs to remain the central focus. He himself said that is why he did what he did. We need to BELIEVE him, and act accordingly. IMO.
