Every time news of a mass shooting blows up on all media outlets comes a variety of reactions from all sorts of people. On social media, it's the "thoughts and prayers" posts followed by the changing of profile pictures to show solidarity. Or it’s the hate-filled comments, pinpointing all individuals belonging to certain groups as the ones we should watch out for. There's also the labeling of the atrocity, usually with the implications that if the culprit is a Christian white male with mental illness, it's a hate crime, and if he's a Muslim, it’s an act of terrorism. Then there’s the politicians, never failing to politicize the incident in support of their own agenda, promising swift justice and that this will be the last of it. But alas, all these outrage, anger and cries for change often become forgotten, thus failing to translate into effective action. That is, until the next shooting takes place and the cycle repeats itself.
Early Sunday morning, 50 people were killed and at least 53 were injured at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. This makes it the worst mass shooting event in the country, a horrific feat in itself that’s made even worse by the fact that we are only 164 days into 2016, yet it’s already the 133rd mass shooting. The perpetrator was a single shooter named Omar Mateen, also a resident of Florida, and yes, a citizen born and raised in the United States.
According to the FBI, Mateen has been on their watch list twice: for making radical Islamic propaganda comments in 2013, and for his ties with an American suicide bomber in the Middle East in 2014. However, because of a lack of direct link to terrorism, he was no longer under FBI surveillance before his rampage took place. Notably, Mateen legally purchased a handgun and an assault rifle just “within the last few days,” says ATF Assistant Special Agent in Charge Trevor Velinor.
This goes to show how relatively lax Florida’s current gun regulations truly are, and just maybe, implementing stricter background checks would prevent at least a few madmen from obtaining a gun in the future. For those who would argue that this wouldn’t have happened had those people in the nightclub been permitted to carry, let me remind you why nightclubs are a gun-free zone: under no circumstance should anyone be holding a gun in one hand and an alcoholic drink in the other.
This man took the lives of 50 people away from their loved ones. This man changed the course of life of hundreds of innocent people. This selfish monster and his guns. All because, according to his father in a report by NBC, the sight of two men kissing angered him.
Perhaps, this also demonstrates that there is still so much hate at the heart of this country, and that it may never truly go away. But even in our disparate sets of beliefs, whether or not you support the LGBTQ community and whether or not you support gun control, one thing we all can agree on is that this is an urgent problem with the resolution requiring a compromise on both sides. If the loss of 50 innocent lives today isn’t motivation enough for us to unite, then I’m afraid that the deaths of Mateen’s victims will just be swept under the rug as we go on with our daily lives, oblivious as to when the next shooting strikes, uninvolved until it threatens the safety of ourselves and our loved ones.
