On June 12 the ATF announced that both guns used in the Pulse Orlando attack were purchased legally by terror suspect Omar Mateen.
Breitbart News has previously reported that the phrase “legally” purchased means the buyer passed a background check for weapons. In that case, the buyer was Omar Mateen.
At 3:34 pm Eastern ATF Headquarters tweeted, “BREAKING: ATF Orlando ‘We have completed urgent traces on firearms involved in Orlando shooting. Firearms purchased legally.'”
This means Mateen joins a long and growing list of attackers and alleged attackers who passed background checks for their firearms as well. Those include:
Mainak Sarkar (UCLA), Sayed Farook and Tashfeen Malik (San Bernardino), Noah Harpman (Colorado Springs), Chris Harper Mercer (Umpqua Community College), Vester Lee Flangan (Virgina), John Russell Houser (Lafayette), Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez (Chattanooga), Dylann Roof (Charleston), Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi (Garland), Jared and Amanda Miller (Las Vegas), Elliot Rodger (Santa Barabara), Ivan Lopez (Fort Hood 2014), Darion Marcus Aguilar (Maryland mall), Karl Halverson Pierson (Arapahoe High School), Paul Ciancia (LAX), Andrew John Engeldinger (Minneapolis), Aaron Alexis (DC Navy Yard), Tennis Melvin Maynard (West Virginia), Wade Michael Page (Sikh Temple), James Holmes (Aurora theater), Jared Loughner (Tucson), Nidal Hasan (Fort Hood 2009), Jiverly Wong (Binghamton), Seung-Hui Cho (Virginia Tech), Naveed Haq (Seattle), and Mark Barton (Atlanta).
Yet retired General David Petraeus, former CIA director Michael Hayden, and retired Admiral Thad Allen are joining ranks with Mark Kelly in a bid to require background checks on every gun sale as a way to keep us safe.
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.