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Obama Says Orlando Gunman Was Probably a Homegrown Extremist Obama Says Orlando Gunman Was Probably a Homegrown Extremist
(about 1 hour later)
WASHINGTON — President Obama on Monday said it appeared that the gunman in the Orlando, Fla., massacre had been inspired by extremist information he found on the internet, but that there was no clear evidence he was part of a wider terrorist plot directed by the Islamic State. WASHINGTON — President Obama said Monday that while it appeared the gunman in the Orlando, Fla., massacre had been inspired by extremist information he found on the internet, there was no clear evidence he had been part of a wider terrorist plot directed by the Islamic State.
“As far as we can tell right now, this is certainly an example of the kind of homegrown extremism that all of us have been concerned about for a very long time,” Mr. Obama said, speaking in the Oval Office after a briefing with law enforcement, counterterrorism and homeland security officials. “As far as we can tell right now, this is certainly an example of the kind of homegrown extremism that all of us have been so concerned about for a very long time,” Mr. Obama said, speaking in the Oval Office after a briefing with law enforcement, counterterrorism and homeland security officials.
Mr. Obama said the mass shooting in Orlando on Sunday by a gunman identified as Omar Mateen, which killed 49 people, wounded more than 50 and is being investigated as an act of terrorism, appeared to be “similar” to the one in San Bernardino, Calif., last year. The perpetrators of that attack claimed allegiance to the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, but had no direct connection to the group before unleashing a blood bath. Mr. Obama said the mass shooting in Orlando on Sunday by a gunman identified as Omar Mateen, who is accused of killing 49 people and wounding more than 50, was being investigated as an act of terrorism. Mr. Obama called it “similar” to the attack in San Bernardino, Calif., last year, in which the perpetrators claimed allegiance to the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, before unleashing a blood bath, but had no direct connection to the group beforehand.
Mr. Obama said the Orlando shooting, which appeared to have been carried out with guns obtained legally, should also prompt Americans to “think about the risks that we are willing to take by being so lax in how we make very powerful firearms available to people in this country.” “We see no clear evidence that he was directed externally” by the Islamic State, Mr. Obama said of Mr. Mateen, although the killer declared fealty to the group “at the last minute.”
“We make it very easy for individuals who are troubled, or disturbed, or want to engage in violent acts to obtain very powerful weapons very easily, and it’s a problem,” Mr. Obama said. Still, Mr. Obama said the attack underscored the degree to which the Islamic State, a Sunni extremist organization, was able to inspire hateful acts of brutality around the world.
“One of the biggest challenges we are going to have is this kind of propaganda and perversions of Islam that you see generated on the internet, and the capacity for that to seep into the minds of troubled individuals, or weak individuals, and seeing them motivated then to take actions against people here in the United States and elsewhere in the world,” Mr. Obama said.
Law enforcement officials are scrutinizing the material Mr. Mateen came across online in order to better understand the path that led him to the murderous rampage on Sunday, Mr. Obama said.
The president, clearly anguished by the latest mass shooting to unfold during his tenure — over which a pattern has emerged of gun violence and refusals by Congress to enact gun restrictions in their aftermath — said the Orlando massacre should also prompt Americans to “think about the risks that we are willing to take by being so lax in how we make very powerful firearms available to people in this country.”
“We make it very easy for individuals who are troubled, or disturbed, or want to engage in violent acts to obtain very powerful weapons very easily, and it’s a problem,” Mr. Obama said, noting that the rampage appeared to have been carried out with guns obtained legally, including one the suspect was able to carry out of the store the same day it was purchased.
Without referring to him, Mr. Obama also appeared to counter Donald J. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, who has suggested in the wake of the Orlando horror that the president is insufficiently concerned about terrorist threats. Mr. Obama said that the shooting should prompt both an intensification of efforts to fight terrorism and new steps to rein in gun violence — and that one response need not come at the expense of the other.
“It’s not an either-or; it’s a both-and,” Mr. Obama said. “We have to go after these terrorist organizations and hit them hard, we have to counter extremism, but we also have to make sure that it’s not easy for somebody who decides they want to harm people in this country to be able to obtain weapons to get at them.”
The president also said the F.B.I., which has been criticized for failing to thwart the attack even though Mr. Mateen had been investigated for potential links to terrorist groups, had acted appropriately in the Orlando case.
“The F.B.I. followed the procedures that they were supposed to and did a proper job,” Mr. Obama said.