Forty-nine innocent people fatally shot and wounded. Dozens more people hospitalized, traumatized, and terrified. A country left in shock, terror, and grievance.

The shooting at the Orlando nightclub on the morning of June 12, 2016, was a national tragedy. A tragedy caused by one crazed man who acted out of hate, extremism, and selfishness. This man is responsible for taking fellow citizens’ lives in a fashion that is so no way justifiable. That is a tragedy not a political statement or grounds for a campaign.

People are grieving and hurting, survivors are scared to release their names in fear of terrorist sympathizers, and an entire community of LGBTQ people are shaken following the loss of so many of their brothers and sisters, yet so many Americans have turned this incident into fuel towards the campaign to make gun control laws stricter.

The weapons used on Sunday morning were legally purchased by Omar Mateen, the shooter. Mateen purchased the weapons from a law-abiding business owner in Florida who conducted proper background checks on his customers. So, in this case, everyone obeyed the law up until the actual incident. However, Mateen was a terrorist. He wanted to kill people and intended to do so that night. Had the weapons he purchased not been available to him in the regular market, it is almost a guarantee that he would have been able to obtain at least some sort of deadly weapon elsewhere. If the laws change, criminals will simply bypass them.

It is fair to assume this since it’s proven that the Black Market does exist and is prevalent in many crimes. If a terrorist wants to kill people, he or she will find a way whether is it by means of constructing an explosive device, obtaining guns from local or foreign producers, or even hijacking a plane or bus. The terrorists that attacked New York on 9/11 used nothing but box cutters to highjack a plane. Was 9/11 a box cutter issue? No? Then why is the Orlando tragedy a gun issue?

Everyone already knows that people who have an addiction to drugs will find ways to get them. Guns are the same thing. For example, heroin has always been illegal, in every form of possession, and yet the country is still facing one of the worst heroin-overdose epidemics of all time. When people are so determined to do something, or get something, they will, whether it is legal or not.

Society is dangerous not because of the legality of gun control, but instead because of the handful of citizens who act upon bad intentions and extremist ideas. Omar Mateen is responsible for the worst mass shooting in American history, not two guns. As American citizens, every single person in that club had a right to bear arms, and if one of them had chosen to exercise that right on that night, then perhaps the number of fatalities could have been lessened. However, that right should not need to be exercised, or even considered, when planning a night out on the town. It is a shame and a true devastation, that there are people in this world who make innocent and leisurely activities a risk. Sadly, those kinds of people will not disappear in this dystopia of a society in which we live. Laws will not change people’s beliefs, motives, goals, or intentions. Laws can, on the other hand, protect innocent people from the monsters walking among them, while simultaneously allowing the government to benefit from transactions that would likely still happen otherwise.

As horrible a reality as it to face, Omar Mateen would have gone on this murderous spree regardless of any law that was in place. Sadly, these poor, innocent victims were in danger and their lives at risk simply by being in his presence. As a society and a culture, we should be grieving the loss of nearly fifty fellow Americans, we should be focusing on sending love and support to the families and friends who woke up without a loved one on Sunday morning. We should be motivated to, as a country, cut ties between citizens and terroristic groups. Using this horrific incident as a means of campaign material is putting something terrible on a pedestal and using it to an advantage. Murder is murder, and it is never okay for someone to commit it.

#WeAreOrlando