From top: Omar Mateen, Pulse nightclub, Orlando, Florida; Dr Julien Mercille

A culture of violence continues to haunt the United States.

Dr Julien Mercille writes:

Yesterday, a killer entered a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida and shot 50 people dead and injured at least as many. It is reportedly the worst shooting in decades in the US.

This is what we know so far:

• The shooter was a 29 year-old man named Omar Mateen, of Afghan origin but born in the United States.
• He also reportedly didn’t like to see two men kissing.
• He had a violent past: his ex-wife said he beat her repeatedly.
• He allegedly pledged allegiance to ISIS, the so-called Islamic State group, before going on his killing spree.

Of course, people like Donald Trump who come rather short of good arguments to convince people to vote for them quickly resorted to the tough approach blaming “radical Islam” and America’s “weak leaders”.

However, there have been many shootings in the US and the overwhelming majority of them are not carried out by Muslims, so blaming a religion makes little sense.

The shooting is not surprising. Such events have actually increased in recent years in the United States, according to studies (see figure).

The United States, in fact, is a clear outlier compared to other OECD countries for the number of assault deaths per capita.

The figure below shows the United States in blue and the other OECD countries in red over the last few decades.

One problem is the lack of tight regulations on gun sales and ownership. Indeed, in US mass shootings since the 1980s, most killers obtained their weapons legally.

Further, as many as 31% of households own a gun, down from 40% in the 1970s (see figure).

At the root of all this as well is the culture of violence that haunts the United States. Anybody who has spent some times there should have anecdotes confirming this.

I’ve lived there for six years and it’s indeed hard to miss. The military is such a large institution that virtually everybody has a member of their extended family who is or has been in the armed forces. Some families even describe themselves as a “military family”–an expression I’ve never heard in Ireland, for example.

This is all fed by US militarism in general, which has been busy for years attacking and otherwise trying to intervene in other countries’ affairs, while spending more than any other nation on “defense” spending, which really means “offense”.

But violence goes further than the military. The police are notoriously violent too. I lived in Los Angeles for a few years and one cannot fail to notice. For instance, there was a police helicopter constantly hovering over my house, surely “patrolling for our safety”.

Also, I was stopped by the police about 3-4 times while there, never having been stopped before in my life.

Once was for not stopping at a stop sign on my bike on a university campus. Another time was for asking why the police had surrounded my street with “do not cross” tape (it was because of yet another fake bomb alert).

If I had insisted a little more to cross the line and go home, which was still far from the alleged bomb, I’m not sure what they would have done with me. I wouldn’t be surprised that if I had been black or Latino I would have received a more aggressive reaction—it’s that bad.

The direct cause of the Orlando shooting seems to be homophobia, which demonstrates once again that anti-gay feelings are still very much part of this world.

It should also bring to mind the importance of events like the same-sex marriage referendum of last year and all the social movement work that laid the ground for its passage. Its significance goes way beyond the freedom to marry for gays. In fact, that is probably the most minor part.

The most important part is that it contributes to shifting attitudes away from homophobia in all its forms and minimises the likelihood that events such as what happened in Orlando will happen. But clearly, there is still work to be done.

Julien Mercille is a lecturer at University College Dublin. Follow Julien on Twitter: @JulienMercille