Nightclub terrorist Omar Seddique Mateen was able to legally buy the AR-15 rifle he used to slaughter 50 at an Orlando gay bar even though he was on the FBI’s radar, officials said.
The FBI had looked into Mateen twice — in 2013 and 2014 – but apparently found nothing worth further investigation.
Mateen purchased the powerful assault weapon and a handgun sometime “in the past few days,” Tampa ATF Assistant Agent in Charge Trevor Velinor said. He declined to detail where the purchases were made.
Though there is a mandatory three-day waiting period between purchase and delivery of a handgun in Florida, there is no waiting period for an AR-15.
Florida does not require background checks and has no special regulations on assault weapons such as the AR-15, which provides maximum killing power.
The weapon, dubbed the M-16 by the Army in the 1950s, allows shooters to fire as quickly as they can pull the trigger.
Usually, an AR-15 magazine contains up to 30 rounds, but higher capacity magazines can be purchased.
Versions of the AR-15 were prohibited in 1994 under the federal assault weapons ban, which was lifted in 2004.
The weapon was used in the 2012 Aurora, Colo. moive theater shooting. Also, Adam Lanza used the rifle to kill 26 at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school in 2012.
The families of victims at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 filed a lawsuit against one of the gun’s manufacturers. They pointed out that the rifle was marketed for its killing power.
“What should surprise — and horrify —us is that Remington actively promotes the AR-15’s capacity to inflict mass casualties,” the Sandy Hook families wrote in a newspaper opinion piece at the time.
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