There will always be maniacs but the US chooses to put the means of perpetration within easy reach

No state can always protect its people from acts of evil mania. But the US chooses to put the means of perpetration within easy reach, writes Gerard Howlin

WHAT happened in an Orlando nightclub in the early hours of Sunday morning was a matter of choice. One was a choice made by the gunman, Omar Mateen.

Another was the choice made by much of the American political class, allowing people generally, and people who are disturbed or mentally ill especially, ready access to high-powered automatic weapons. Calamities are an inevitable outcome. Unquestionably, the causes of the event were multi-layered, and many of those layers are still unfolding.