Even if they had closed the previous cases, these inquiries should have flagged him again for the FBI. But apparently it didn’t. The FBI has been crying for personnel to cover the thousands of of suspects that they have to follow and evaluate. If we want to think of constructive approaches, reevaluate how they are evaluating cases and get more man power to them, instead of having another conversation about how to restrict guns.
Via Daily Mail:
A gun store owner reported Orlando shooter Omar Mateen to authorities weeks before he committed the worst mass shooting in US history.
Robbie Abell, co-owner of Lotus Gunworks, told the Wall Street Journal Mateen came into the store in South Florida in May and asked for heavy-duty body armor like the kind used by law enforcement.
Staff at the store, which does not sell body armor, felt it was a strange demand.
After his request was denied, Mateen asked to buy bulk ammunition.
Though Lotus does sell ammunition, staff shut down his request and refused to sell him anything else.
They subsequently reported the incident to the FBI, Abell said.
Mateen had already been investigated by the FBI years before.
But even after Abell’s report, the 29-year-old self-radicalized gunman obtained an AR-15 and a semiautomatic pistol from another store in the area, bought stacks of ammunition, then opened fire on Pulse nightclub, where he killed 49 people and wounded 53.