Orlando

This is about guns and this last weekend, skip at your pleasure offer counterpoint if you wish, but please be civil. (it is also long)

Why I believe current gun laws regarding ownership, capacity and weapon style had no effect on Orlando.

We know the shooter followed all current gun laws and even had federal level fire arm clearance. No amount of back ground checks would have helped. I do question how one gets federal clearance after FBI investigation but I am finding more and more such investigations just don't mean much.

The standard magazine for the Sig Saur MCX (the weapon used in Orlando) is 30 rounds. it is _not_ capacity that allowed the shooter to kill and injure so many people. At Virginia Tech a shooter used a whole bunch of 10 round mags and just a couple 15's.

Looking at the reports this is why I believe this attack was so deadly.

I find 5 factors that allowed the shooter to create so much damage.

The First factor was target density. Lots of people grouped close together are an easy target for any one wishing to make maximum impact for minimum effort. A packed club at 2 AM certainly fits this description.

The Second is penetration. A Full Metal Jacket Round as required by the Hague Compact (no not the Geneva Convention) was intended to reduce deaths in warfare. The thought was that an incapacitating injury was as effective as a death for practical purposes of a battle. Therefor the Full Metal Jacket, Non Expanding , High penetration round became the accepted projectile of "civilized war." This means that in a packed club one high penetration bullet can impact multiple bodies. Thus reducing the number of rounds required.

The Third is Opposition. The Shooter knew that he would face only minimal opposition to entry, he would have the element of surprise and once inside due to gun laws regarding bars and clubs he would face no further armed opposition until a police response arrived. We know he cased the place so he knew what he was facing.

The Fourth is timing. The Shooter knew that 95% of his intended target would be largely incapacitated due to alcohol and possible drug use. It would be likely that the crowd would panic and overwhelm the sober staff and likely cause collateral injury and possible death in the mass panic.

The Fifth and final Factor is motivation. This Man had both radical Ideals and possible personal self-loathing issues which made him willing to give his own life in the attack.

This shooter planned this attack studied it and executed it in a decidedly cold blooded and willful manner. This combined with an uncertain and slow police response is what made the difference.

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