Last Sunday, at two o'clock in the morning, Omar Mateen opened fire on Pulse Nighclub killing 49 people and wounding 53 people. He was later shot down by police and killed. Here are the facts: the night club was a gay night club, the victims of the crime were Latino, he use a military grade rifle and a pistol, and he claimed allegiance to ISIS. There has been speculation that Mateen might have been gay because he met people before at this same night club a year before. Three years ago he was also suspected of being tied to terrorism and having a family connection to Al Qaeda. This act was clearly an act of hate, but its being labeled as terrorism by the media and the fact that not only were the victims gay, but that they were also Latino is also being left out.
The first issue here is that people are using this shooting to help add to the fear that has been developing against Muslims. While the shooter did claim allegiance to ISIS and read online propaganda, the views that terrorist groups like ISIS support are extremist views of that religion. The Bible, the Torah and the Quran all discuss violence and even suggest that violence is the only way for peace. Yet when a Christian incites a mass shooting the immediate cause is linked to mental illness, religion is not even brought into question. Yes this case is different because he directly pledged allegiance to ISIS whereas other shooters may have not invoked a religious terrorist group, but ISIS did not order the attack,and you cannot in anyway blame his religion for his violence, especially because he targeted his violence to a certain community. Calling this an act of terrorism because violence is mention in the Quran is like those who use the Bible to justify their homophobia even though there is no specific reference to homophobia. Just because there is violence in the Quran and just because one group of Muslims are violent doesn't mean all Muslims are violent.
The second issue that we see is that our gun laws our too lenient and that we need laws to protect the LGBT community. Military grade weapons should not be sold to the public and we need better background checks when it comes to purchasing guns. Mateen had a history of saying hateful things and supporting violence and he should have never been able to purchase a gun. Looking at the wider scope of gun violence that we have seen in the past year alone suggest that people who aren't mentally stable enough to handle a gun are still able to purchase them and then inflict lifelong pain on victims and their families. Also, currently there are not any laws protecting LGBT people from hate crimes and violence and their rights are being trampled on by future employers, businesses, and strangers.
Another thing that needs to be addressed is while this was an attack on LGBT people, it was more of an attack on Latino LGBT people, which is important because Latino people are considered a minority compared to white people, so they have even less rights than someone who is white. While I am deeply saddened that a tragedy like this happened and I pray for the victims and their families, I also hope that Congress finally sees that we need to take a closer look at gun laws and introduce laws for LGBT people, but especially for the minority groups, so that no more people have to suffer and that another tragedy like this does not happen.
