AMERICA'S presidential election is set to become very bitter over the coming months following the massacre of 50 innocent gay people at a nightclub in Florida with Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton calling for gun control and Republican Donald Trump blaming Islam.
Yesterday, Muslim gunman Omar Mateen, pledging loyalty to terrorist group Islamic State, killed 50 people during a gay pride celebration at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida. President Barrack Obama described it as the deadliest mass shooting in US history and as an act of terror and hate.
Eventually killed by the police, Mateen, 29, was a New York-born Florida resident and US citizen who was the son of Afghan immigrants and was twice questioned by FBI agents in recent years. His former wife said he was emotionally and mentally disturbed with a violent temper, yet aspired to be a police officer.
Working for the global security firm G4S over the past nine years, Mr Mateen was an armed guard for a gated retirement community in South Florida and had cleared two company background screenings. he attacked the Florida nightclub with an AR-15 assault rifle and a handgun, according to Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings.
This massacre has led to Ms Clinton calling for more gun control, while Mr Trump has jumped on the fact that Mateen was a Muslim and has renewed his call for a ban on adherents of the Islamic faith entering the US. Earlier on in his campaign, Mr Trump had said he would ban all Muslims from entering the US were he elected president.
Preliminary investigations suggested the attack was inspired by Islamic State militants, though there was no immediate evidence that Mr Mateen had any actual ties to the group, law enforcement officials said. As the shooting rampage was unfolding, Mr Mateen made calls to 911 in which he stated his allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State, said Ronald Hopper, the FBI's assistant special agent in charge on the case.
Shots rang out at the crowded Pulse nightclub in the heart of Orlando, about 15 miles northeast of the Walt Disney World Resort, as some 350 patrons were attending a Latin music event in conjunction with gay pride week celebrations. Club goers described scenes of carnage and pandemonium, with one man who escaped saying he hid under a car and bandaged a wounded stranger with his shirt.
Eyewitness Joshua McGill, said: "Words cannot and will not describe the feeling of that. Being covered in blood and trying to save a guy's life."
US officials cautioned, however, they had no conclusive evidence of any direct connection with foreign extremists. This latest attack came six months after a married couple in California, a US-born son of Pakistani immigrants and a Pakistani-born woman he married in Saudi Arabia, fatally shot 14 people in San Bernardino, inspired by Islamic State.
That couple died in a shootout with police hours after their assault on a holiday party attended by the husband's co-workers. Mr Mateen had twice been interviewed by FBI agents in 2013 and 2014, after making comments to co-workers indicating he supported militant groups but neither interview led to evidence of criminal activity.
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