The signs were there. Nearly everyone who came in contact with Orlando jihadist Omar Mateen saw him as dangerous. His co-workers reported him. His first wife said he abused her and had mental health issues. Even Disney contacted the FBI to say Mateen was possibly casing “the happiest place on earth.”

This concern extended to one of the gun shops Mateen visited. Lotus Gunworks in Jensen Beach, Florida, contacted the FBI after Mateen entered the shop looking to buy “high-end body armor.” When the shop informed Mateen it didn’t sell what he was looking for, Mateen asked about bulk ammunition. The shop turned him away. Unlike cake bakers, gun shops can decide with whom they want to do business. The takeaway: Gun store owners generally know what they’re doing and when leftists clamor for more regulation, they ignore the protections already in place.

Case in point: CBS wanted to scare viewers by making them think it’s too easy to acquire an AR-15. Thanks to modern technology that allows gun store owners to run an instant background check on a potential gun buyer, the reporter was able to purchase her AR in 38 minutes. A law-abiding citizen passed a background check and legally exercised her Second Amendment rights? Horrors! But she might have broken federal law hours later when she transferred the rifle to a licensed firearms dealer. According to the gun store’s manager, the reporter claimed she wanted to “undergo training,” though she declined the shop’s free firearm safety instruction. Suspecting that the reporter made a straw purchase, the gun store reported the incident to the ATF and Virginia State Police.

If there is room for improvement, it’s with the FBI. Politically correct directives from Obama hamstring the agency, causing them to let men like Mateen off the hook. And let’s not forget that the government itself breaks gun laws in order to “justify” more gun laws. Remember how the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms let straw purchases go through during Obama’s Fast and Furious gun control scheme. The government didn’t enforce the law, and people died as a result. It’s time to quash the leftist gun-grabbing agenda and focus on the real problems.