I have a theory about the Pulse shooting in Orlando. My theory is that — despite the public perception and despite what the shooter said during the event, this shooting had almost nothing to do with terrorism. I will present a scenario which explains most of what we saw during the tragedy and most of what we know of the prelude and aftermath of the tragedy — a premise that takes it out of the realm of terrorism and places this as more the result of homophobia and general hatred.
FIrst a prelude:
You will notice that I do not use the shooter’s name. I will not use the shooter’s name. I know that some mass shooters want to go down in a blaze of glory.. I will not support that attempt. I would rather remember and honour the names of the victims.
The other thing is that the one big presumption I’m making here is that the shooter was gay.. I’m not talking ‘bisexual → gay,’ either. I mean hardcore “I don’t quite get the vagina sex thing” gay. .. Being part of a religiously homophobic family in a state who’s attorney general went the full 15 rounds against gay marriage means that he is also deeply closeted.
So: The Shooter was gay, and horribly closeted, coming from a ‘traditional religious’ background. Being closeted means that he drives a long ways away from home and work for his gay activities, to minimize the probability that he will run into family or associates. As the shooter hits his early ‘20s, his family starts to goad him to “start a family already”. After some goading, the shooter finally finds a wife and marries her.
The married life does not suit the shooter very well. He’s stuck with vagina sex (Read: “meh!”), and living with someone means that he has little (if any) freedom to go on his gay road trips. He ultimately takes his frustration out on his wife who experiences him as moody, randomly violent and surprisingly low libido. After 4 months of completely unsatisfactory marriage, she is ‘rescued’ by her family.
Rather than suggest that the shooter take therapy to get to the source of his spectacularly unsuccessful marriage, his family simply blames his (now ex) wife, and suggests that he find a “more suitable” wife. Shooter accepts a second wife, but he goes about things a bit differently. First things first, he gets his wife pregnant as soon as possible, so that he has a perfectly good excuse to stop having sex with her.
Then, he comes up with a story for his long, solo, road trips. He’s religiously anti-gay and planning to lay fire and brimstone (and a good bit of lead) on those godless, heathen gays. To do this right, he needs to scout suitable gay bars to figure out how and when to attack. His reason for scouting bars more than 2 hours travel from home: “You wouldn’t want my work mates and family to think I’m gay while I’m doing this, do you?” Wife#2 plays along with this idea, hoping that “It’s just a phase”.
For a while, things are pretty good. His wife is busy with her pregnancy and then dealing with a young child, and he has a perfect cover for his gay road trips.. but it doesn’t last forever.
After a few years of these ‘scouting trips’, wife #2 gets tired of his recurring absences’, She starts to have hopeful conversations along the lines of: “You’be been doing this for a few years now. You don’t really want to kill those gay people, do you? Isn’t it time to just stop this charade?” The effect of these conversations, however, is precisely the opposite of what she intended.
The shooter is now despondent. He is caught up in his lies, and doesn’t want to let them go. His cover has failed and he now only sees a few ways forward — none of them satisfactory:
- Come out to his family and admit that he’s gay (“I’d rather (as it turns out)die!)
- Give up the scouting trips and go back to the ‘straight’ life (“We know how that turned out last time, don’t we?!”)
- Carry out the plan as stated (“oh crumb!”)
He chooses number 3. He orders his weapons, a fistful of ammunition, some high-capacity cartridges and, possibly a bullet-proof vest. Wife #2 drives him down to Orlando for his “one last scouting trip”, and makes on one last, low — key attempt at talking him out of his plan. She fails.
His weapons arrive. The next weekend he drives down to Orlando by himself. He calls 911 and declares “Because ISIS!”. He walks into his (formerly) favourite bar, and starts shooting. Unfortunately he’s far more successful than he expected. He kills dozens, wounds dozens more. He survives and ends up holed up in the bathroom with more potential victims.
After talking with police for a couple of hours, he realises that he has no decent way out. He goads the SWAT team into urgent action, and goes out guns blazing.
A shocked world mourns his victims.
The only leftover pertinent fact is the shooter’s father’s claim that the shooter had been angry at seeing a couple of gay men kissing. I have two explantions:
- The shooter was just jealous that other gay men were able to be open about their orientation and loves, or
- The father suspected his son’s orientation and tried to throw out some misinformation — not realising how much of a microscope-filled fishbowl your life turns into when someone in your family becomes the most prolific mass-murderer in modern history.
You may notice that this scenario has almost nothing to do with ISIS, the Taliban or Al Quaida. They are, in fact, nothing more than a cover story. If you don’t believe me, try replacing “Because ISIS” with “Because Jesus!”, and explain how this story wouldn’t fit with someone in a right-wing, homophobic, fundamentalist Christian family.
I don’t think you can do it.
In many was, the shooter could be seen as being as much a victim of intolerant homophobia as his victims. The biggest difference being that his victims have absolutely no culpability in this story. The shooter does. He was caught up in a web of lies about his own sexuality, but he ultimately decided to buy the guns and participate in the shooting.
If the shooter had not been in a homophobic family, 50 people would probably be alive today. The existence of ISIS, the Taliban and Al Quaida is irrelevant. They are simply excuses. If they hadn’t existed, the shooter would have found some other cover for his scouting trips and, ultimately, his shooting spree. If the shooter had been Christian, he would have used the bible as the excuse for his actions. Choose your favourite religion and modify as necessary.
The only other thing that might have prevented this scenario turning out as deadly as it did would have been making it much more difficult to get hold of an assault rifle. In that case, people would have probably still died, but the body count would have been much lower.
Ultimately, the final answer is love and tolerance. Let your children know that you will love them no matter who they love. Make sure that they know that they are loved period. Fight for a world that accepts people no matter their orientation or presentation, their religion or their race. Fight for a world with easy access to mental health support.
You never know — the life you save, may be your own.