Ponder this: G4S, a major, nationally known security firm, has confirmed that Omar Mateen had been employed by them since 2007.

G4S’s web site says:

For more than 50 years, G4S has partnered with government agencies – from the Department of State to the Department of Homeland Security among several others – in many capacities that include: * Systems integration services that deliver world-class electronic and physical security solutions for critical infrastructure and government facilities * Security management products, including access control, video management and facility management software * State-of-the-art security software, risk management, incident reporting and facility management technology * Security personnel who are consistently ranked the best in the security business

Mateen had a security license, and I take it that he was one of those “security personnel.” Then there is this:

Ensuring the safety of travelers and the efficiency of the international transport system In the global economy, international trade and travel is reliant upon the security of our vast network of ports and airports. At G4S, we know that the key to releasing wider benefits for our clients is to always look at the overall picture to consider solutions that transform performance. G4S works with clients to understand the specific security issues they face. We design solutions to meet those issues, bringing together our expertise in logistics, technology, project management and managing the world’s biggest security personnel work force. Our solutions and capabilities include: * Design and build automated video surveillance systems to improve security and enable facility operators to detect and monitor threats * Perimeter security enhancements that include lighting, thermal imaging cameras, CCTV and motion-detecting systems * Video analytics, wireless communications links and vessel traffic monitoring systems

And this:

Nuclear Facility Security High-risk facilities need a partner with the experience and capability to deliver comprehensive security solutions As the security solutions pioneer for the high-level critical infrastructure industry, G4S has an outstanding reputation, strong historical commitment and unsurpassed expertise for our clients. * G4S has partnered with more than 90 percent of U.S. nuclear facilities * Our force-on-force prep has sites earning a 100 percent passing rate * Our engineering team has performed design work for more than 80 percent of U.S. nuclear facilities * Our technology has systems in more than 70 percent of U.S. nuclear facilities

In the wake of Mateen’s terrorist attack, liberals have already begun blathering about guns. Bernie Sanders, for example:

I gotta tell you over 25 years ago, I believed that in this country we should not be selling automatic weapons which are designed to kill people. We have got to do everything that we can on top of that to make sure that guns do not fall into the hands of people who should not have them, criminals, people who are mentally ill. So that struggle continues.

Mateen didn’t use an automatic weapon. He used a semiautomatic rifle and a handgun that presumably was also semiautomatic. A large majority of the handguns sold in the U.S. are semiautomatics, and, while I haven’t seen statistics on rifles, the most popular rifle in the U.S. is the AR-15. Many millions have been sold, and many other rifles are also semiautomatics. And, news flash, Bernie: every firearm is “designed to kill people.”

Everyone would agree that it is desirable to keep guns out of “the hands of people who should not have them.” In fact, that is tautological. But Omar Mateen wasn’t mentally ill, and until yesterday he wasn’t a criminal. He evidently passed whatever background check was necessary to work for a well-respected security firm. While we don’t yet know where he obtained his firearms, it is reasonable to assume that he bought them legally, and would have been able to buy them legally under any regime that liberals have proposed, other than a ban on semiautomatic rifles.

Rather than talking about keeping guns out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them, how about a narrower focus on how we can insure that jihadists are not hired to provide security at federal buildings, airports and nuclear power plants?