IT is still unclear what caused Omar Mateen, an American of Afghan descent, born and bred in the US, to mow down 50 people at a gay discotheque in Orlando, Florida.

In what has been described as the worst mass shooting in US history, a number of possible motivations and causes have been cited in the media for this crime, including homophobia, ties to Islamist extremists and mental illness.

There are conflicting claims about the suspect’s supposedly homophobic tendencies. Reports have also mentioned that Omar Mateen had pledged allegiance to the militant Islamic State group, while the suspect’s ex-wife claims he was mentally ill and abusive.

Suspicions about ties to extremism usually emerge in cases where the suspect is Muslim, as Mateen was. Presidential contestant Donald Trump wasted no time playing up his alleged links to religious militancy in a series of almost triumphal tweets declaring: “I told you so.”

Whatever conclusions the investigators reach, it is clear that Muslims in America will increasingly feel the heat because of this crime. Unfortunately, the law-abiding majority has to put up with the aftermath of the actions of the militant fringe.

Muslim-Americans had already been feeling uneasy as the couple involved in December’s San Bernardino incident belonged to their faith.

The community will have to brace itself for more scrutiny, especially if Muslim-baiters such as Mr Trump have their way, and if the shooter in the Orlando rampage does, in fact, prove to be a home-grown militant.

While a full investigation will reveal whether or not it was extremist tendencies that led the shooter to commit this crime, the fact remains that while the threat of home-grown extremism is real, America has a major gun problem on its hands.

If it is true that the shooter was mentally ill, how was he able to legally purchase deadly firearms?

Unfortunately, over the decades, America has witnessed a long, painful list of horrific gun crimes. While some of the major attacks — Nidal Hasan’s rampage at Fort Hood, the San Bernardino killings — did involve Muslim perpetrators, the majority of such gun crimes did not.

The perpetrators have included a wide variety of people, from jobless individuals to high school students, while the victims have included first graders (the Sandy Hook massacre) to university students (Virginia Tech), along with office workers, shoppers, diners etc.

There is indeed a need for America to keep an eye on local extremists who may or may not be linked to transnational outfits such as IS or Al Qaeda. But the US should not avoid the elephant in the room — the easy availability of guns.

The US needs to reconsider its gun laws, especially the Second Amendment, an 18th-century piece of legislation that the gun lobby treats as a mandate from heaven, a law which provides the loopholes for criminals, militants and mentally disturbed individuals to acquire firearms.

Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2016