This past weekend was a terrible one. Most, if not all people can agree that our country was met with a string of horrific, senseless tragedies in the recent weeks that broke hearts nationwide. 50 people lost their lives during a night out on June 12, 2016; 50 people will never see the sunrise ever again. What hurts the most, is that this kind of violence is not uncommon in the United States. Massacres like this, massacres that target the innocent and the marginalized, are no surprise.
People around the world have taken to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to express their deepest condolences to those affected by the events that took place at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida. Among these people, many Republican politicians are offering prayers to the deceased and their families. But before June 12, 2016, they offered no such prayers, especially to the LGBTQ+ community. Instead, they signed bills and passed laws that determined who can marry who and what bathroom transgender women/men can use. It is these bills that perpetuate fear and hatred toward the LGBTQ+ community, allowing them to be subject to the kind of violence we saw on June 12th. This was a hate crime. Hate that has been ingrained into our society’s conscience by the bills signed by these Republican politicians that promote homophobia and transphobia. This crime came as no surprise in a country that, up until last year, was so reluctant to recognize the basic human right of allowing people to love who they love.
While prayers do help, what really needs to happen is policy change. Not only do we need to let transgender men/women use the bathroom they identify with, we need stricter gun laws too. Within the past two weeks in the United States, there have been three separate incidents that resulted in the loss of life due to firearms. The murder-suicide of an engineering professor and graduate at UCLA, the loss of the late singer and ex-“Voice” contestant Christina Grimmie, and now the massacre at Pulse nightclub. Our country is so obsessed with our 2nd Amendment right to own firearms that there is absolutely no change happening to avoid these tragedies, the same tragedy that killed 20 children in the Sandy Hook shooting. The lack of active pursuit of stricter gun control laws by members of our Congress allow firearms to be placed in the wrong hands, therefore resulting in an excessive and unnecessary loss of life. The rest of the world is waiting for the United States to finally do something about the excessive gun violence that has plagued our country in the recent years. In 1996, Australia had the largest massacre in the world and almost immediately the Australian government cracked down on gun ownership. There have been no such tragedies since. I understand, it’s in our Constitution. But bear in mind, this Constitution was written in times when an AR-15 was not for sale; when semi-automatic assault rifles were not used for hostile, hateful acts. Times are changing, people are dying, and now we need members of our Congress to be in favor of the protection of innocent people.
I, along with many others, am tired of hearing about innocent people dying on a daily basis due to gun violence. I’m tired of seeing these tragedies on the news and no one doing anything about it. I don’t know the answer; I don’t know exactly what type of reform we need. But I know that it’s up to our Congress to make changes and enact stricter gun laws in order to stop this pattern of mass murder and intense mourning nationwide. And I do know that Muslims are not to blame for the horrific events that took place in Orlando, Florida on the night of June 12, 2016. Terrorism knows no religion. What happened at Pulse nightclub was a result of the lack of gun regulation that allowed a person, who had been interviewed by the FBI twice, to purchase a gun. We are called the “Land of the Free” but are we really free if at any moment our lives can be taken from us as a result of lax gun laws? Members of Congress need to stop being so hell-bent on protecting our 2nd Amendment right and start protecting the lives of innocent people.
