Gun store claims to have turned away and reported Omar Mateen to FBI weeks before club shooting
14 replies, posted
[url]https://gma.yahoo.com/orlando-shooter-turned-away-different-gun-store-being-141628142--abc-news-topstories.html#[/url]
[Quote]The owner of a Florida gun store said he tried to alert the FBI to a "very suspicious" man later identified as Orlando nightclub shooter Omar Mateen after Mateen tried to buy body armor and bulk ammunition from the store.
Robert Abell, a co-owner of Lotus Gunworks in Jensen Beach, Florida, told ABC News today that a man entered the store five or six weeks ago and asked specific questions about high-end body armor. When employees said the store didn't carry the body armor he wanted, Abell said, the man made a phone call in a foreign language, hung up and then asked about ammunition in bulk.[/quote]
Holy hell. This guy being on a watch list years earlier is one thing, but this is something else entirely. There were so many potential opportunities to prevent this.
Furthermore, the phone call opens questions about just how "lone wolf" this attack actually was. Might he have actually had an accomplice or "sponsor" within an extremist organization? We already knew he pledged himself to ISIS, but everything else I had seen so far suggested that this was a relatively unplanned and uncoordinated attack from a lone gunman.
[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;50536673][url]https://gma.yahoo.com/orlando-shooter-turned-away-different-gun-store-being-141628142--abc-news-topstories.html#[/url]
Holy hell. This guy being on a watch list years earlier is one thing, but this is something else entirely. If there is any truth to these claims, then how the hell could THIS have been ignored?[/QUOTE]
[quote]But they didn't have the man's name, since no sale was made, and the only surveillance footage they had was grainy.[/quote]
tah dah
[QUOTE=Code3Response;50536687]tah dah[/QUOTE]
Yeah, I read that bit again just after posting, must have missed it the first time. Just the same, there were so many potential opportunities to stop this guy. It's hard to believe he managed to carry this shit to term.
Further evidence that we dont need more laws, rather we gotta actually use and enforce the ones we already have
I know a few gun store owners, they are usually really good at denying service on something they don't feel is right.
Problem is you can't really do much after you refuse, especially because they mention they worry about the labeling or being called a racist.
[QUOTE=Tudd;50537038]I know a few gun store owners, they are usually really good at denying service on something they don't feel is right.
Problem is you can't really do much after you refuse, especially because they mention they worry about the labeling or being called a racist.[/QUOTE]
In my experience most people who work at a gun store do not give a fuck, if they don't think you should buy a gun they will kindly tell you to get the fuck out and call the police.
[QUOTE=zerglingv2;50545535]In my experience most people who work at a gun store do not give a fuck, if they don't think you should buy a gun they will kindly tell you to get the fuck out and call the police.[/QUOTE]
Well yah, that's what I'm saying too. But the extra step past calling the police and making a commotion to let others know is very limited to not appear racist.
[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;50536699]Yeah, I read that bit again just after posting, must have missed it the first time. Just the same, there were so many potential opportunities to stop this guy. It's hard to believe he managed to carry this shit to term.[/QUOTE]
Information overload causes a lot of stuff to slip by
not to mention how hindsight is 20/20 and something that might have seemed only slightly off in the past seems glaringly obvious now. Unless someone was building a profile of him with a board and pins there was no connection to be made until all the individual people with weird experiences came forth together.
As for the accomplice thing, I've heard from some people that, according to some surviving victims, the doors were being held shut and nobody could escape the nightclub during the attack. Others said there were multiple shooters, supporting their claim with the whole x amount of bullet holes in just 7 minutes. Some victims claimed to have seen more than one shooter but in all that chaos I'm sure a lot of people claimed they saw a lot of different things
Not sure what to think about all of it
Witnesses are the least reliable form of information. They probably thought the doors were held shut because so many people were trying to leave in a panic. Probably thought there was more than one shooter because of the amount of rounds going off.
How often do stores like this sell "high end" body armour though? How suspicious is it exactly to ask for it?
[QUOTE=Dirty_Ape;50548946]How often do stores like this sell "high end" body armour though? How suspicious is it exactly to ask for it?[/QUOTE]
Body armor is pretty fucking suspicious to ask for in a gun store, let alone "high end" body armor.
Gun stores are there for hobbyists, hunters, and people who want some personal defense.
Personal defense for non-officers does not usually curtail lugging around body armor, afaik. However, it's not illegal for civilians to own or wear body armor (except in Connecticut.)
Body armor is completely legal for law abiding civilians to purchase, but I've never personally seen a gun store carry it - more often you just get it online I think??? It's not really that suspicious to purchase something that you're within your rights to purchase - though you are EXTRA culpable for the crime you committed if you were wearing the body armor while doing it, at least in California. They tack on some huge extra charge if you were caught doing a robbery with a kevlar vest on, for example.
Below is right thou I'd be suspicious as all hell if someone just walked into my shop completely new asking for the modern combat starter kit
Yah, basically you asking about body armor at a gun store, as someone who just walked in and isn't a regular, is a huge red flag.
Generally to get body armor though, you just buy online from a retailer that specializes in expired police armor that is still perfectly fine.
Lucky this guy is a dumbass that can't google, but at the same time it sucks that a person who asks such a obviously suspicious question is only notified to authorities with no name.
[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;50536673]Furthermore, the phone call opens questions about just how "lone wolf" this attack actually was. Might he have actually had an accomplice or "sponsor" within an extremist organization? We already knew he pledged himself to ISIS, but [B]everything else I had seen so far suggested that this was a relatively unplanned and uncoordinated attack from a lone gunman.[/B][/QUOTE]
It may be, however ISIS do use recruiters, even in Finland they prey on vulnerable young adults who have just turned 18 and without a job, without a place to study, and without a real family with them except the new-found friends from the refugee center.
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