Gun lobby should take blame for massacre

True to form, the NRA said that a while back as its response to the Orlando shooting has been a deafening silence as was its immediate response to the San Bernardino, California, shooting in 2015 when 14 people were killed and 21 injured; the movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado, in 2012 when 12 people were killed and 58 wounded; and the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting that same year when 27 people, including 20 children aged six to seven, were killed and one person was wounded. To be fair, the NRA said later that if teachers and other "good citizens" were armed, these senseless killings would have been prevented.

This is the same NRA that has every elected official quaking in his/her boots and has prevented sensible gun control legislation for decades. Is it any wonder that thanks to the NRA, the vast majority of guns used in 16 recent mass shootings, including two believed to be used in Orlando, were bought legally and at least eight shooters who had criminal histories or documented mental health problems were not disqualified from purchasing the weapons.

The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the action of their homophobic supporter in Orlando. I think the shooter was just inspired by those lunatics and was not one of their foot soldiers.

What links the events of Orlando and Los Angeles, along with the other horrific shootings is not only the NRA. They are merely Frankenstein's monsters deriving energy from the power of hatred and division in the US, by the complete collapse of bipartisanship and the great divide fueled by bleeding-heart conservatives who brought us the war with Iraq, and class, racial and ethnic hatred that produced another monster, the presumptive Republican nominee who has a real chance of winning. Even if Hillary Clinton is elected US president, she will never be able to win against the NRA. Saner gun control would help but it's unlikely as the NRA bides its time and quietly threatens its opponents with electoral death. And assuming Clinton could achieve the impossible, she will never be able to remove the more than 300,000,000 guns in circulation in the US.

What impact will this tragedy have on the presidential election? It's too early to tell. Usually acts of terrorism help the right while everyday mass murders usually tend to favor the left. But this election is anything but usual. For a while this tragedy will provoke mourning in the US but even though it comes during an election, soon, thanks to the NRA, it will probably be business as usual.

The author is a senior adviser to Tsinghua University and former director and vice-president of ABC Television in New York.