Orlando Nightclub Shooting – A World Mourns

Absolute devastation has hit not just the LGBTQ Community, but also the ‘free world’ at large. Early Sunday morning, at least 50 people were killed, and 50 more were wounded when a gunman opened fire, and took hostages at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. In what is being called, the ‘Worst shooting in the history of the United States,’ and the nation’s worst terrorist attack since 9/11; the ‘Land of the free’, and its homosexual citizens are feeling the effects of systematic prejudice, and home-grown terrorism.

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While this hate crime erupted in the heart of a popular gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida it broke lives and hearts not only in Florida, but also across the nation, invoking sympathizers world-wide. This hate crime senselessly perpetuated prejudice and homicidal rage with the aid of not one, but two legally purchased semi-automatic guns. It’s a crime that President Obama has declared, an act of terror and hate, and it transpired in the very same month that he declared the month of June as: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month.

Not only is this mass shooting at a gay nightclub truly heinous and a most deplorable hate crime, it’s also been discovered that it’s an act of Isis. The gunman, Omar Mateen, called 911 before the attack, declaring fealty to the terrorist group. However, several officials indicate that, there’s no sign that anyone else was involved in the attack, and there’s no indication that Omar Mateen was in touch with terrorists overseas. Even so, this act is in itself classified as domestic terrorism.

Orlando Nightclub Shooting Suspect Omar Mateen

So what provoked an American citizen with Afghanistan roots to go on a hate crime shooting spree? Omar’s father said his son got angry when he saw two men kissing in Miami a couple months ago, and he thinks that it might be related to the shooting. Slowly we can piece together the shooter’s mindset, especially knowing his admitted allegiance to ISIS. The Islamic militant terrorist group that teaches that the gay lifestyle, and the western world’s way of life should be annihilated. Whether or not Omar had ISIS on his phone’s contact list, taking his incorrigible actions into account, he was definitely dialed in to the terrorist group’s dogmatic doctrine.

Even with Afghanistan roots, Omar Mateen was a legally born American citizen with a wife and a family, but it seems that he felt no affinity to the American dream.
Rather he vehemently disagreed with its pursuit of happiness for all sexualities and creeds. What’s more disturbing than this bloody Sunday was that all of this should have been expected after all, the FBI knew who he was for some time.

Omar had legally brought an AR-15 type rifle and handgun in the week prior to the shooting. And that purchase was approved, even after the FBI had looked into Omar in 2013 because of some radical Islamic Propaganda statements that he had made. Mateen worked as an active security officer where he had made offensive comments to his co-workers. The FBI investigated that too so, that’s TWO times that the Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated Omar Mateen before the Orlando club shooting. The case was eventually closed when they couldn’t confirm that he had direct ties to radical Islam.

The massacre was ideologically motivated

Apparently Omar didn’t get the memo that Obama had officiated June as LGBT PRIDE Month, or most likely he just didn’t care. While he physically declared himself a resident of the States, and he was an American born citizen, it’s clear that his moral compass resided within the postal code of a terrorist regime. “It appears he was organized and well-prepared,” Orlando Police Chief John Mina said early Sunday. Although they haven’t found any accomplices, it’s clear Mateen was working hand in hand with hate.

11 Orlando police officers and three Orange County sheriff’s deputies stormed the nightclub on Sunday morning exchanging fire with Mateen. The shooter, Omar Mateen, 29, was killed in the bloody shoot-out with law enforcement after a three-hour siege. Spraying bullets into at least fifty people and killing fifty people more, this gunmen spiraled out of control in a violent whirl wind, and took down many shiny souls. He also abused the right to bear firearms in a country that’s currently at war with its own firearm policy, and it has gun reform activists on the edge of their seat.

President Barack Obama said that the massacre is “a further reminder of how easy it is for someone to get their hands on a weapon that lets them shoot people in a school, or in a house of worship, or in a movie theatre, or in a nightclub. And we have to decide if that’s the kind of country we want to be,” Obama stated, in essence questioning the Second Amendment, and the people’s right to keep and bear arms in the United States. “And to actively do nothing is a decision, as well.”

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An act of terror and an act of hate, but we shall rise

This shooting comes during a series of national celebrations that signify LGBT Pride Month, as well as during post election season making gun reform a hot topic to reconsider. It also comes after the nation recently celebrated a huge triumph in securing gay marriage rights, and now this senseless act seems to somehow turn back the hands of time. Dear Terrorists, If your beliefs are different than the country you’re currently living in, that’s no excuse for justifying, or excusing appalling acts of violence. Love and light will always reign supreme despite the darkness of your hate crime. Signed, Reality Check

Our hearts and condolences go out to the victims, their friends, their family and the LGBT community at large. The brilliance of our differences, be it race, gender, religion or sexuality, and the celebration of that freedom and individuality is the essence of the western world’s way of life. Anyone who doesn’t agree with that is more than welcome to make a time machine, return to the dark ages and fuck off.

Check out the world-wide reaction to the Orlando Pulse Gay Night Club Shooting. Has this sparked something within you? Is there something that you’d like to get off your chest? Then speak your sexy mind in the comments below.

Gabriella Zene
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