The Orlando gay club shooting was a hoax.

Pro points out that one single club patron and the shooter have been identified as actors. Extend my argument that it's not unheard of for gay people in major American cities to pursue acting. It does not prove anything; it doesn't prove these people were hired to literally die in the line of fire. This is one glaringly obvious point that Pro has ignored. Why would an actor volunteer to die -- what purpose does that serve in their acting career? These "crisis actors" were killed and their names, social media accounts, etc. are all public. As I've explained in the last round, these people have jobs, friends, families and lives that have all been verified and accounted for. If they were actors, they would have had to be willing to be killed and/or have thousands of friends, families and coworkers go along with the lies about them being killed. That is extremely unlikely and Pro has dropped this contention because of that. There is no way this massive secret would be able to be kept by thousands of people. Their names, identities, etc. would all become obsolete after this event. Pro says the government lacks the budget to use really good actors when the fact of the matter is that budget is not the only issue. It's about secret keeping and the possibility of massive fraud being exposed if this were actually a hoax... but it's not. You can derive a conspiracy theory out of almost every occurrence or start rumors about anyone and everything. Consider the fact that Beyonce is reportedly in the "Illuminati" and some people actually believe the moon isn't real [1]. Pro is required to provide evidence for his claims, not just propose theories, and no such legitimate evidence exists. Regarding the alleged actors from the shooting, people respond to tragedies and trauma differently. The media is encouraged to spice things up and provide details as quickly as possible, sometimes at the expense of accuracy. It is also far more likely the media would allow on false witnesses to make things up about the shooting (and these people would get their 15 minutes of fame) than for the government hire people to make things up. That would put a lot of people at risk. The media has an incentive to not properly vet sources, but it would be incredibly problematic for government. It has been suggested this "false flag" was set up by the Obama administration to push the Democratic narrative on gun control. And yet Donald Trump and the Republican party have also had something tremendous to gain from this shooting: vilifying Muslims. Both sides of the aisle had political ground to lose from this shooting. Moreover, if the Obama administration wanted to stage a hoax to promote gun laws, why choose a radical Muslim (to help the GOP narrative) and draw attention to our government's massive failure in Iraq? Indeed that is how ISIS and ISIL were created, so I doubt Obama would want to draw attention to this and remind everyone that our policy has failed and created terrorism here at home. Pro says that the 911 calls from Mateen prove that there was no link to ISIS or ISIL. And yet his very own source says the exact opposite! While the original calls were censored (supposedly to protect the victim's families) some politicians have called for the full release and transcript of the audio which has been provided. Per my opponent's very own source, the shooter did pledge allegiance to terrorist groups [2]. Pro claims that Mateen was texting his wife which is an exaggeration. Mateen sent a total of two text messages to his wife, which would take less than 15 seconds to send during this several hours-long massacre [3]. Pro also claims that it would take "26 rounds to kill a person at close quarters" which is patently absurd. Experts note that you can absolutely be killed by ONE single bullet, though sometimes it takes as many as 20 but definitely not always -- that is not usually the case [4]. Some conspiracy theorists have suggested that "too many bullets" were fired (since the audio is all over the internet, proving the shootings actually occurred) and thus a lone wolf couldn't be responsible. Yet police were inside the club shooting as well as Mateen. In fact, reports indicate that some patrons may have been accidentally shot by police [5] which explains all of the bullets, sounds and casualties. Records from Orlando have revealed the floor plans of the Pulse club that verify many of the eyewitness accounts and testimonials including Luis Barbano's and several others [6]. Furthermore, USA Today provides information explaining how club patrons escaped that includes information about holes in the wall [7] which have also been verified vs. conspiracy theorists faulty images that do not contain all of the relevant information [6]. People have been injured escaping through these holes which has been documented; why would actors hurt and theoretically kill themselves on purpose [8]. In conclusion: The eyewitness testimonials and stories are consistent, per the YouTube video comparison [6]. The actual injuries of victims have been shown close up. It makes no sense whatsoever for "crisis actors" to volunteer to be shot and killed; surely that would end their lives let alone their careers. It would be impossible to silence the thousands of people who know these "actors" and the government could not possibly pay off every single one of them, assuming silence was even possible which it is not. Pro has ignored my points about video surveillance inside the building [9]. I've explained that the (some) conflicting information that came out after the attack is due to the media trying to get out the information as fast as possible, sometimes without fact checking or vetting witnesses. Both the Democrats and Republicans had a lot to lose from this shooting, so it would not necessarily benefit anyone obvious for this "false flag." These two parties would also theoretically try and bring the other down with accusations and evidence of conspiracy, but no one was able to. My opponent has acknowledged that Omar Mateen was seen and heard shooting in the club, so we know the event actually took place and that many people truly died. There is audio of Mateen pledging allegiance to ISIS and the full transcripts have been released. It would be possible for Mateen to pull off the feat of killing so many people given the layout and amount of weapons he had, however police were likely also responsible for killing some people on accident pet the eyewitness reports. While you can create a conspiracy theory out of anything by asking a lot of questions, Pro has not provided any PROOF of a hoax. He simply asked how certain things were possible which I've answered. He also hasn't provided a shred of evidence for the "crisis actors" faking or explaining how so many people would be able to stay silent and risk their lives on behalf of government request... government that had a lot to lose in this endeavor. Pro has not met his burden. He has not provided any meaningful evidence. [1] http://www.revisionism.nl... [2] http://www.aljazeera.com... [3] http://www.telegraph.co.uk... [4] http://www.nytimes.com... [5] http://thefreethoughtproject.com... [6] [7] http://www.usatoday.com... [8] http://www.usatoday.com... [9] http://www.dailymail.co.uk...