Terror strikes Orlando

Fabienne Fleurantin/Staff writer

 

Tragedy strikes again as this incident is being classified as “the worst mass shooting in the history of the United States,” according to NBC News. This headline that has been all too familiar to Americans resurfaces yet again and hits very close to home.

This shooting took place at Pulse, an LGBT nightclub in Orlando, where 50 people have been killed and 53 injured. This is being called “the deadliest terror attack since 9/11,” according to CNN.

Omar Mateen is the perpetrator behind this massacre, which has been labeled as an act of terrorism.

“Mateen called 911 around the time of the attack to pledge allegiance to ISIS and mention[ed] the Boston bombers,” according to a U.S official on CNN.

Mateen’s father, Mir Seddique, said that “his son got angry when he saw two men kissing in Miami a couple of months ago and thinks that may be related to the shooting,” as mentioned on NBC News.

What’s worse is that he obtained “an AR-15 rifle and a handgun” legally, officials say on NBC News.

We have become too acquainted with this type of violence.  We have seen these incidents way too often. These shootings happen so frequently it has become somewhat of a natural occurrence. It’s as if we automatically anticipate an event like this to occur again and again.

How many lives will be sacrificed before coming to the obvious conclusion that gun violence is tearing apart our country and the people in it? How long before we take these incidents seriously and realize that gun violence is a prominent and dangerous issue? This needs to stop. We cannot continue to bow our heads and walk silently without cause when lives are at stake.

That club was a place where members of the LGBTQA community felt safe. They had the freedom of being who they are and finding people like them who encouraged them to feel protected, proud and loved. And now, the sanctity of that sanctuary was threatened.

This is a common denominator that keeps showing up time and time again and something needs to be done about it. We need to put our politics aside and realize that this is bigger than sporting a title. We have to find a way to progress toward positive gun reform.

People will point fingers and place blame on whatever they believe is behind this—the Islam faith, members of the LGBTQA being who they are or guns. But this issue runs much deeper and is far more complex than the furious designation of blame.

Classifying one religion under one man who believed in hatred over love is not the answer. Faith does not endorse hate.

This is not an attack on faith and this is not an attack on the government. What happened in Orlando was a display of homophobia at its worst. This was an act of hatred that consumed the lives of those who believed in love.

Hatred may have taken place in Orlando but love will always win.

 

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Image by Shawn Nystrand, retrieved from Flickr: 

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