June 13, 2016
Carson City, NV – Today, Nevada Attorney General Adam Paul Laxalt issued the following statement after Orlando’s terrorist attack. As Nevada’s chief law enforcement official and the state’s only constitutional officer who has served in a theater fighting the war on terror he stated:
“Yesterday, Omar Mateen, an Islamic terrorist, attacked a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. He murdered fifty Americans on American soil in the name of the Islamic State. The Islamic State called Mateen ‘a soldier of the Caliphate.’
“Calling this attack a hate crime, a mass shooting or an act of violence fails to properly characterize what yesterday’s shooting was--a terrorist attack perpetrated by radical Islamists. Minimizing the attack neither clarifies our duty as a nation, nor targets the enemies that are responsible. It goes without saying that yesterday’s terrorist attack was a hate crime, a mass shooting and an act of violence, in the same way that September 11th was a hate crime, a series of deliberate airplane crashes and also an act of violence. Nevertheless, September 11th was not about generically preventing hijacked plane crashes and acts of violence. Islamic terrorists threaten the American way of life. Our enemy seeks to kill Americans simply for being Americans, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation. Our duty is to unite as a nation, properly name the enemy and then destroy that enemy.”
“President Obama and the political left continue to confuse and distort reality, thereby endangering American lives here and abroad. Leaders must unite – not seek to divide – Americans and Nevadans over the second most deadly terrorist attack on American soil in history.”
###