A week after the gunman Omar Mateen open fired in the Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., vigils are still taking place. The families still suffer, friends still mourn, and yet it seems like the country has almost moved on.
Forty-nine people were killed, and 53 others were wounded in what has become the worst mass shooting in U.S. history and the worst terror attack since 9/11, but the impact of this shooting still seemed to be lost in the arguments, debates and politicking.
What makes this incident so important are the major issues brought to light. Gay rights, terrorism, mental health and gun rights all come to the forefront in discussion, and this shooting has made it apparent that we as a country still have work to do in all of those areas. Because of that, it’s a struggle to choose one topic to explore.
I could write about the fact that Donald Trump, in a tweet, “appreciated the congrats” on being “right” about radical Islam the morning after this happened. I could write about how Mateen legally bought an assault rifle in Florida, after the FBI had investigated him for possible terrorist ties, that he used to kill 49 people, or that this was the same type of semi-automatic rifle used in the Newtown, Conn. school shooting in 2012 (26 killed) and in the Aurora, Colo. theater shootings (12 killed). I could write about the fact that Mateen attempted to buy body armor only weeks before the shooting.
But what struck me most about this incident was the reaction. After all, it is the reaction of an event like this that dictates how, or in this case, if we will change. The shooting occurred while most of us were asleep, and when I awoke and checked my phone, I saw that people were already arguing.
The morning after 49 people were killed, people were arguing about gun rights. About gay rights. About immigrants’ rights. It’s ridiculous to think that when families were still trying to figure out whether or not their loved ones were alive, people began to focus only on the shooter and on the politics that surrounded him. Only 24 hours after the shooting, politicians were more interested in furthering their campaigns and agendas rather than mourning the lives that we lost.
It’s this premise in society that when something significant happens, people have to show how that event supports their own opinion. For example, let me use Donald Trump, the Republican candidate for the president who believes a ban on all Muslims in the U.S. will stop terrorist attacks. After the shooting, Trump tweeted that he appreciated the congrats on being right about his opinions. On the other side, immediately after the shooting, people were already tweeting why Congress caused the shooting because lawmakers refused to pass stricter gun laws. For the record, Congress did, but that’s not my point.
These conversations need to be had, because we have to change. Congress needs to make a stand against guns. We as a society need to do a better job of accepting everyone, regardless of their sexual orientation, which requires education. Instead of perpetuating Islamaphobia, we need to work together with the Muslim community to locate and control these “lone wolf” terrorists. But there’s a time and place. I don’t know exactly when that is, but I can tell you it’s definitely not the morning after 49 people are killed. Leave the politics out of the equation for now. The politics will be back, don’t worry. They need to be back, or else in 3 months we’re going to wake up to another one of these mass shootings and realize nothing has changed.
