Worst Mass Shooting in U.S. History in Orlando

R.I.P. Thoughts and prayers to family and friends.

 

This is just awful. Too soon to talk about why or what ifs. An awful loss of life, and heartfelt thoughts go out to the friends, families, and communities affected.

 

I mean....it was a terrorist attack, basically?

 

Really at a loss for words with this. So sad. So fucked up. This world makes me sad.

 

It's not too soon. The collective sentiment of it always being "too soon" to talk about is why everyone forgets and feels apathetic by the time the next one happens a week later. People need to talk about it and remember.

And it was a premeditated attack against LGBT people, so there's nothing really to speculate about the whys either.

 

Schools, churches, movie theaters, concerts, night clubs. Am I supposed to raise my son in a bomb shelter?

I'm sick of this.

 

Thought to everyone involved, so sickening to wake up to something like this.

 

Crazy to think that I've been down to Orlando for vacation and saw Thrice the same night at the HOB

 

Anyone in south Florida if you want to donate blood lake worth is holding a blood drive tomorrow. Contact me for further details. If anyone needs a ride let me know we just really need all the help we can get

 

Aaaaaaaand Republicans are already trying to frame this as "radical Islamic terror" so that they can conveniently dodge the facts that the shooter was an American citizen who purchased his weapons legally and specifically targeted the LGBTQ community (making this a clear hate crime and act of domestic, rather than international, terror). Not surprised in the slightest, and most of them are completely omitting the fact that these victims were members of the LGBTQ community.

Texas's Lt. Governor even tweeted out a Bible verse that essentially says "People get what they deserve" and then his office tried to deny that it was connected to the shooting. They said that the tweet was "pre-planned" to go out today. Because everyone pre-plans what they're going to tweet at least a day in advance. Disgusting.

This is a sad day to be an American, both because of the tragic loss of life in Orlando and because of the fact that these victims' families must share this country with the literal scum of the Earth. I hope they all make it through this difficult time and stay strong in the face of the barrage of hatred and bigotry they will likely have to endure.

 

Donating blood tomorrow. This is home and I can tell you right now how unsafe we all feel. My heart goes out to the families and everyone involved. Tonight I'll be right around the corner at the Aaron West show and I can't even describe how unsettled I feel.

 

As shitty and to blame for these things happening as they are, it's not even just Republicans. It's most people. Tons of media are erasing the fact that it was a very specific hate crime against LGBT people. Even the president's "this is an attack on all of us" statement is wrong. I'm sure he meant well by it, but all it does is continue to ignore and erase how plainly deliberate this was toward the LGBT community.

 

That's definitely true. I just more was specifically speaking toward those who are deliberately obfuscating the truth of the situation because it both contradicts their carefully crafted political narratives (regarding both Islam and gun control) and also is a tragedy befalling a specific group of people toward whom they have previously been hostile and yet must now pretend to care about.

But yeah, the President, while meaning well, definitely should have been more explicit in his statement. Believe it or not, Hillary Clinton's statement was very explicit in naming this an act of hate toward the LGBTQ community, and she reinforced her support for them as well. I was pleasantly surprised.

 

50 people dead, this is tragic. You would never see a mass shooting like this happen in Australia since we put gun control laws in place in the 90s. Schools, movie theatres, churches getting shot to hell. Americans and their gun culture need to change. This kind of behaviour is not normal

 

Unfortunately, this type of behavior IS normal here and we would need quite the cultural overhaul to accomplish that. First of all, the National Rifle Association has become so powerful that not enough elected officials will stand up to them, lest the NRA funnels money into a more gun-friendly primary challenger in their next election. In addition to that, the Constitution itself guarantees the right to at least own some types of guns, and amending the Constitution to remove that language would literally be impossible.

We even tried to push for Smart Gun tech but the NRA opposed that. We have tried so many seemingly common sense reforms and they've all been killed by the NRA. The best we can hope for is to one day maybe limit the types of guns available for civilian purchase and to make it more difficult for people who shouldn't have guns to acquire them. Other than that, a full firearms ban is just never going to happen.

 

The sad part is that so many people aren't even calling for an outright ban and elimination, because there are more guns than people in this country, it would be borderline impossible to do such a thing. People suggest compromise of stronger background checks or a database, and the people who scream into the void about being "law abiding citizens," those who claim to be responsible and unlike any of the people who commit crimes, then proceed to lose their shit at the slightest mention of changing things.

Nearly every mass shooter is a responsible gun owner until the day they aren't, and jumping to defend wild west-era lack of regulations says much more about them than it does someone wanting to change anything.

 

Agreed. As someone living in the UK, it's so blatantly obvious what needs to change in the US. I understand that gun culture is huge in America, and I'm not saying to get rid of it entirely; but much stricter regulations needs to be enforced. Anyone who is 100% sane and mentally sound is fine to have as many as they like. For someone who was on FBI's watch list, it seems like he managed to get ahold of a firearm far too easily. It's just heartbreaking.

 

I'll never understand America's obsession with guns. Pretty much everyone I know is moaning about it and it's just becoming a regular occurence to see public shootings. I don't even know how I'd go about obtaining a gun in the UK. Glad we learnt our lesson after Dunblane.

 

This is so terrible and the worst part is, after Sandy Hook, I gave up on believing something would happen to change things. This is what people want.

 

Yup. That's when I gave up believing anything will ever happen. All of the "America is worth fighting for" and similar such sentiments are admirable, and may even be true, but it's not a winnable battle.

I remember this tweet every time people are "shocked" and "can't believe this would happen" and then forget in 48 hours.

 

What on God's green Earth are you talking about? There is nothing to frame and no one is dodging anything. It was a terror attack inspired by radical Islam ideology.

This guy was on the watch list. ISIS claimed responsibility. What planet are you living on?

 

I'm so exhausted and tired by the events of today that I can't even tell if this is a joke post but I really hope it is.

 

I haven't seen any news outlet suppress this was attack on the gay community. Obama didn't mention it. He also didn't mention this was a Islamic terror attack either. Must have not fit the narrative.

 

So because a some isolated incidents involving guns took place and people died- you are saying we should ban all guns?

By that logic, since there have been some isolated Islamic inspired attacks occured in this country, we should ban all Muslims.

Yikes.