Sheriff Larry Smith Weighs In on Orlando Massacre

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — He was a body builder and a security guard, a religious man who attended the local mosque and wanted to become a police officer. Early Sunday, police say 29-year-old Omar Mateen opened fire at a gay nightclub in Orlando in an attack that left 49 people dead and 53 wounded. It’s a long road to answers as investigators look into what drove Mateen to commit the terror attack. He was a known ISIS sympathizer. He also was investigated by the FBI twice in 2013 and 2015 after making terroristic threats to coworkers. Smith County Sheriff Larry Smith, who also served as an ATF agent for several years, spoke with KETK and said gun control is not the issue.

According to Smith, “The current Presidential administration goes towards firearms, the handguns, the assault rifles. I would like to see this President as well as the next President give to law enforcement the tools they need to provide local, state and federal law enforcement the tools they need to develop a useful intelligence tool where we can pass and disseminate information easily and readily.”

Smith said that would serve us much better than going after the firearms.