Contrary to many news reports, Sunday’s massacre at the Pulse night club in Orlando was not the largest mass shooting in US History – not even close.  The 1921 Tulsa Race Riot and the Wounded Knee Massacre of Native Americans both claimed more than 200 lives.  Today they might be classified as racial hate crimes.  Nor was the Orlando tragedy the largest mass shooting carried out by religious extremists.  That would be the 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre, carried out by Mormons against Protestant immigrants passing through Utah – a religious hate crime.

The killings at Pulse set only one new American record – the most victims killed with guns by a single shooter.  The lessons to be learned from our history should be clear.

Lesson one:  There will always be violent people who want to kill a lot of others.  Their motives and hatred may arise from racial, religious, cultural, economic, or political differences.  Or the motives may be personal, as has happened with people fired from their jobs or disciplined at school who return with guns seeking revenge.  And any motive can originate in or be amplified by mental illness.  That is our human condition.

Lesson two:  There is one ingredient in the Orlando massacre that made it possible for one person to shoot so many people.  That ingredient is the modern semiautomatic military-style weapon, an AR-15 in this case.  If we want to reduce the ability of mass killers to shoot large numbers of people quickly (before even those who are armed have a chance to defend themselves) we must limit the types of weapons available to the general public.

Can we keep guns out of the hands of killers?  Background checks to prevent gun purchases by those with criminal records, terrorist ties or mental illness will probably be helpful, but no matter what laws we pass most individuals who want a gun can find a way to get one – legally or illegally.  We should implement background checks as well as we can, but let’s not be fooled into thinking that they will prevent a determined criminal or terrorist from acquiring a gun.

Let’s be clear.  Military weapons are created for the purpose of enabling one soldier to kill the maximum number of enemy combatants.  They are extremely effective.  That is why they have become the weapon of choice for mass killers.  The AR-15, for example, was used at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the Aurora, CO theater, Umpqua Community College, and the San Bernardino Health Department.  The shooter at the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood Clinic chose a different military-style weapon based on the Russian AK-47 design.

Of the six mass shootings I’ve discussed, two were by Muslims. All six shooters were American born.  Do you think that human nature suddenly changed to produce more mass killers among us?  Or does it seem likely that the killers were always here but modern technology has made mass murder easier?

The weapons that we need to ban from private ownership share several design features.  The will fire as rapidly as the shooter can pull the trigger for as long as they have ammunition.  They are capable of using large magazines and can fire as many as 100 times without reloading.  They can be reloaded quickly – in less than a full second by an experienced user.  They use ammunition designed to do maximum damage to human flesh – often causing victims to bleed to death quickly even if no vital organ is hit.  They are ideal not only for military use.  They are ideal for mass killers.

Even someone with a concealed carry permit and a handgun has little chance of defending himself if a mass killer with an AR-15 enters the room and begins shooting.  In fact, an armed off-duty policeman tried to stop the Orlando shooter but was unable to do it and nearly died trying.

There is no constitutional problem with banning private ownership of certain kinds of firearms.  We already ban machine guns for the same reason that we now need to ban military style semiautomatic weapons.  There is one way to make that happen.  That is to vote for legislators who promise to do it.  If we don’t do that, there will be more mass murders like the one Orlando.  The only uncertainties are where, when, and who will die.