When a terrorist shouts “Allahu Akbar” before gunning down a decorated Army officer in an ROTC classroom, blaming gun laws instead of radical Islamic terrorism reveals a corruption of logic so profound it would be laughable if it weren’t so dangerous.

When Ideology Blinds Common Sense

Mohamed Bailor Jalloh walked into Constant Hall at Old Dominion University at 10:49 a.m. with a singular purpose. He confirmed he’d found an ROTC class, then opened fire while shouting the jihadist battle cry. Within minutes, Lt. Col. Brandon Shah, a retired Army helicopter pilot who’d flown combat missions in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Eastern Europe, lay dead. Two ROTC students were wounded. The FBI immediately launched a terrorism investigation through their Joint Terrorism Task Force, recognizing what any rational observer could see: this was Islamic terrorism targeting American military personnel.

https://youtu.be/weBXOaz66co?si=glTICWArErAD5Dw2

Yet a district attorney chose to ignore every fact pointing to religious extremism and instead blamed lawmakers who support the Second Amendment. This wasn’t a gun control failure. No lawmaker forced Jalloh to pledge allegiance to ISIS. No pro-gun legislation radicalized him during his service in the Virginia Army National Guard from 2009 to 2015. The weapon didn’t whisper jihadist ideology into his ears during his December 2024 release from federal prison, where he’d served time for attempting to provide material support to ISIS.

Norfolk's Soros-backed Attorney Ramin Fatehi is blaming the shooting on…. Republicans

Not the foreign islamist who actually carried out the attack and was previously convicted for providing support to ISIS pic.twitter.com/1RD24LsRfH

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) March 13, 2026

A History Written in Warning Signs

Jalloh’s terrorism wasn’t spontaneous. In 2016, at age 26, he contacted ISIS operatives in Africa and communicated with an FBI informant posing as an ISIS associate. He attempted to purchase an AR-15, though authorities rendered the weapon inoperable during the sting operation. He pleaded guilty and received an 11-year sentence from Judge Liam O’Grady. His inspiration wasn’t video games or gun culture but the 2009 Fort Hood shooting, where Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan murdered 13 people in an ISIS-inspired rampage targeting fellow service members.

The parallels are impossible to ignore. Jalloh specifically sought out military targets, just as Hasan did. He shouted Islamic declarations during his attack, just as Hasan did. FBI Special Agent Dominique Evans explicitly confirmed Jalloh “aspired” to replicate Fort Hood. Every piece of evidence screams premeditated Islamic terrorism. Yet some prefer the comfortable fiction that firearms legislation could have prevented a radicalized former soldier from carrying out a religiously motivated massacre.

Heroes Without Guns

The ROTC students who stopped Jalloh didn’t need firearms. They used their training, courage, and physical force to render the terrorist “no longer alive” within minutes of the first 10:43 a.m. emergency call. ODU Police Chief Garrett Shelton confirmed the shooter was dead less than ten minutes after police received notification. FBI Director Kash Patel praised the “brave students” whose actions saved lives. Evans called their response “extreme bravery” that terminated the threat before additional victims could be claimed.

These facts demolish the gun control narrative some officials attempted to construct. The attack ended not through police gunfire or armed civilian intervention, but through the raw determination of military trainees who refused to let a terrorist succeed. Their heroism underscores what conservatives have long understood: evil exists independent of the tools it employs. Jalloh’s ideology drove his violence. His weapon was merely the instrument of a corrupted soul devoted to a death cult that celebrates martyrdom and murder.

The Real Questions Nobody Wants to Ask

Why was a convicted ISIS supporter released early from federal prison? What monitoring systems failed after his December 2024 release? How did a known terrorist with documented aspirations to mass murder manage to reach an ROTC classroom without triggering any alerts? These questions demand answers rooted in national security failures, not Second Amendment scapegoating. The federal government convicted Jalloh in 2016 for terrorism-related offenses. They knew his ideology. They knew his intentions. They imprisoned him specifically because he posed a threat.

Yet somehow, after release, he successfully executed the very attack he’d been convicted of planning a decade earlier. That represents a catastrophic breakdown in monitoring convicted terrorists post-incarceration. It suggests our justice system underestimated the permanence of jihadist radicalization. It raises urgent questions about how many other released terror convicts harbor similar ambitions. Blaming gun laws avoids these uncomfortable realities and absolves those responsible for releasing and monitoring dangerous extremists.

The Cost of Refusing to Name Evil

Lt. Col. Brandon Shah deserved better than to have his murder politicized by officials more concerned with partisan gun control narratives than confronting Islamic terrorism. Shah graduated from ODU’s ROTC program and returned as an instructor, dedicating his post-military career to training the next generation of officers. His sister confirmed his devotion to service. His students honored him by stopping his killer. His sacrifice demands we tell the truth about why he died: a radicalized ISIS adherent targeted him because he represented American military strength.

The two wounded ROTC students, one critically injured, also deserve honesty. Their community deserves leaders who prioritize their safety over ideology. Americans deserve prosecutors who recognize terrorism when a shooter shouts “Allahu Akbar” while murdering military personnel. Redirecting attention from Islamic extremism to gun policy isn’t just intellectually dishonest. It’s a betrayal of every victim, every hero, and every citizen relying on officials to protect them from genuine threats rather than imaginary bogeymen constructed to serve political agendas.

Sources:

Timeline of events surrounding shooting at Old Dominion University – WTKR

1 of 3 victims has died after a shooting at Virginia’s Old Dominion University – WSLS

Police respond to active incident at Old Dominion University – ABC News

Old Dominion shooting terrorism ties – Politico