What a weekend for Orlando. On June 10, a deranged fan shot and killed pop star Christina Grimmie. He was possibly aiming for random fans until Christina's brother saved them. Two mornings later, a radical terrorist broke into a gay club and killed 49 people with a gun and injured 50 others. These acts are still slowly sinking to people's minds everywhere. The facts that innocent people have died under evil hands and they are now away from families, friends, and the world are unthinkable.
These two shootings hit home for me. I live right near the Columbia Mall in Maryland. I grew up going to the mall, having wonderful memories. I would go there to have fun and enjoy myself. On January 24, 2014, I was on Twitter and I saw that one of the trending topics was Columbia Mall. My heart sank and I repeated "no" to myself over and over again. I knew what this meant. I opened the trend and my fears were confirmed: a shooting took place at my mall. To make it worse, the shooter was a classmate and a colleague of my brother's. My mall and my area have been damaged. It is not safe anymore. I immediately thought to myself: What if I was there? Or my sisters who were there the night before? What if my mom was running errands for my dad's surprise birthday party? What would happen? I can't fathom the thought of waiting for them to respond to me as they escape the killer. I can't fathom running away. And that's the thing: no one does. And no one deserves it.
No one should be living in fear of a massacre. The church, the elementary school, the college, the concert, the club, and the mall should be your safe zones. They are supposed to be safe places where people can escape their troubles, learn, be themselves, and celebrate. There shouldn't have to be security guards in places, because safety shouldn't be a problem. Public places aren't war zones. So, why do terrorists have to make them war zones? Why do terrorists have the kill people over their age, race, religion or sexual orientation?
Where are the gun laws? Where are government, passing them? Where is extra security that we need to have, but shouldn't. Until action is done, we can't feel safe anymore. Because anything can truly happen now. So, keep loving each other because love and peace are stronger than hatred and war.