I am not now and have never been a gun owner. I would support a ban on assault weapons if constitutional and depending on the definition of “assault weapon.” I do not, however, support and vehemently oppose the blatant cover-up of the cause of the tragedy in Orlando.

Hillary Clinton tells us lax gun control laws are the root cause of the Orlando tragedy in which 50 of America’s young adults and children were barbarically murdered. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Blaming lax gun control laws is not only dead wrong, it will cost more American lives because it hides the real cause of the Orlando tragedy from the American people.

The real cause of the loss of so many promising lives is a barbaric legal, “moral,” political, and “ethical” code called SHARIA. Sharia commands its adherents to kill gays and lesbians. Andrew McCarthy writes in the National Review (June 12, 2016) that “wherever sharia is the law, homosexuals are persecuted and killed.” McCarthy cites in that article a 2014 Washington Post report listing ten Muslim countries where homosexuality may be punished by death (Yemen, Iran, Mauritania, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, and Iraq).

Sharia is not a religion. So, this is not about Islam nor all Muslims. And, not all Muslims are sharia-adherent. Perhaps only 25% to 40% of Muslims worldwide are sharia-adherent. Unfortunately, this works out to a few hundred million people who would prefer to live in the 6th Century — where women are treated like property and gays and lesbians must be killed. Sharia is the evil that separates Medieval Islam from Modern Islam.

Sharia is the root cause of the Orlando tragedy, yet Hillary Clinton, the mainstream media, and the anti-gun crowd go to great lengths to cover this up. Why?

Some people, including Hillary Clinton, abhor guns so much that they instinctively default to lax gun laws as the cause of everything they find wrong with America. Give them enough time and they will find that lax gun laws cause global climate change.

Mrs. Clinton has additional reasons for participating in, actually leading, the cover-up. First, her family foundation has accepted tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars in donations from sharia-adherent countries. These are countries where gays and lesbians are routinely killed on account of their sexual preference. These are countries where women are treated, at best, as second-class citizens and, at worst, as property.

Second, accepting the truth – sharia is the root cause – proves that bringing more Syrian refugees to America and opening our borders is a suicide pact. She cannot be seen as campaigning for a suicide pact, but that is exactly what she is doing.

Third, accepting sharia as the root cause prevents her from falsely casting Donald Trump as anti-Muslim or as calling for a permanent ban on Muslim immigration to America. Let’s set the record straight; Donald Trump never called for a permanent ban on Muslim immigration. Instead, he called for a temporary pause in immigration until the government could ensure those entering the country did not come here to kill gays and lesbians and Christians and Jews who refuse to submit to sharia.

I want a president who cares more about protecting my life than praying at the altar of political correctness. A growing number of my gay and lesbian friends feel the same way. In fact, one friend told me that she was “weighing the scales” with Hillary Clinton on one scale and Donald Trump on the other scale. Hilary, my friend said, would preserve her right to marry her partner, but not save her life. Donald would preserve her safety and save her life. Not a close call.

She is voting for Donald Trump because he understands the existential threat to our way of life in America and will make the tough decisions to protect Americans from this threat. Hillary Clinton will go out of her way not to offend the very people who are here to kill us.

My friend does not like the way that Donald Trump sometimes says things. She cares far less about how people say things than what they do. She wants a president who will protect her safety and America’s security rather than one who does not want to offend the people who want to kill us.

Paraphrasing James Carville – It’s sharia, stupid!

Steven Hantler is a retired auto industry executive and frequent contributor to Breitbart.