Rep. King: If Orlando Club Patrons Had Been Armed, ‘Unlikely Anybody Would Have Gotten Shot’

Commenting on the Islamist terror attack at the Pulse night club in Orlando, Fla., and the push for more gun control laws by liberals, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) explained that more restrictions only punish law-abiding citizen gun-owners and that if the patrons at Pulse had been armed, the terrorist likely never would have gone there and it’s likely that no one would have been shot.

Florida is a concealed-carry state, which means law-abiding citizens can get a permit to carry a gun on their person.  However, they cannot take a concealed-carry gun into an establishment that serves alcohol. Thus, the Pulse night club was a gun-free zone.

During an interview on the Simon Conway show, WHO Newsradio 1040, Rep. King said,  “I look at this and I think, we have a constitutional right to keep and bear arms and the problem in Orlando at the Pulse was not a problem of the gun laws. I mean, he [Islamist Omar Mateen] followed all of them.” 

“The FBI interrogated him at least three times,” said King. “They decided that he wasn’t enough of a risk. He wouldn’t have been on a list anyway.”

“So anything that they [gun-control advocates] might propose to do would not have prevented the tragedy, the horrific, gruesome tragedy in Orlando,” he said, “and yet they would trample on the very rights that are needed for people to protect themselves.”

“So, I would just pose this — and I don’t think I’ve said this publicly but I’ve thought it plenty of times — if everybody in that nightclub, at the Pulse, had been armed, if everybody had a gun, I would say this: I don’t think anybody would have gotten shot.”

“First place, I don’t think the perpetrator walks in there,” said King. “If he does walk in there, then we may have [some injuries or deaths], but there would’ve been a lot fewer than the 102.”

On June 12, Islamist terrorist Omar Mateen entered the Pulse night club in Orlando and fatally shot 49 people and wounded another 53 people. Mateen, who pleged allegiance to the Islamic State, was shot and killed by police at the scene. It was the deadliest jihadist terror attack since 9/11. 

Read at CNSNews.com