Homeland Security Threats

The definition of threat is the intention to inflict, injury, damage, or other hostile action on someone in retribution for something done or not done. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has to be prepared for many threats whether it is from nature or human beings and these threats are constantly evolving. DHS was born out of a failure to protect this country from terrorism on 911 and once formed failed to protect the people from disasters like Hurricane Katrina, but it has learned from its mistake and has evolved. New threats from the same problems have emerged and only time will tell if the government can adjust. Some of these new threats to Homeland Security are self-radicalized Muslims, mass shootings, and deadly viruses like

The Orlando nightclub shooter is evidence of this new threat towards Homeland Security. The shooter’s name was Omar Mateen and he carried out one of the deadliest shootings to date in Orlando, Florida at a nightclub frequented by the LGBT community. Omar just like many other self-radicalized terrorist pledge their allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) before his death. Upon further investigations by the government and media outlets, they concluded their was no direct link to ISIS. ISIS still claimed this cowardly act, but the only reason they would take ownership of this act is for exposure and recruiting. Terrorist attacks like this will occur more often because disturbed people like Mateen are becoming more radicalized because of the growing frustration towards the Muslim community. A lot of this frustration stems from distasteful rhetoric from politicians after these tragic events to try to play on people’s fears to get

Majority of these shooters have been anti social loners who suffer from some type of mental illness. Some of the examples of these shooters are James Holmes, Adam Lanza, and Senung Hui Cho. All three of these shooters showed signs of mental illness and were seen by mental health experts before their shootings. Mass shootings are particularly difficult to stop before it happens because due to a lot of red tape, like doctor patient confidentiality and lack of background checks for mental health issues, weapons are easy to buy. Due to politics this issue cannot be solved because many politicians do not agree on a solution. The main question is at what point does public safety matter more than a person right to bear arms? Department of Homeland Security will have to weigh in at some point in the future when these tragic events continue to