Orlando Shootings

Today is Sunday June 12th and I have just come out of work to find out about a hate attack on a gay club in Orlando. It's taken me a little while to gather my thoughts, to get past the sense of mind numbing shock that I was in and begin to express how I feel. This was not a planned blog post, but as I was laying in bed I realised that I needed to write, that I needed to be able to get my thoughts out there because if I didn't they would eat me alive.

Over the course of this weekend there have been two shootings in the US. We lost Christina Grimme, a wonderfully talented singer, and we have lost at least 50 men in a shooting at a gay club. We have lost so many people in such a short period of time, through senseless acts of violence which are not being talked about or handled properly.

While the United States should be cracking down on their gun laws we are left in the wake of both of these shootings having them be justified as either mental health issues of the attacker or terrorism. Yes, these may have been the cause but it is the same with every other shooting; we are told that it was terrorism or mental health and nothing is done to the gun laws. How many more shootings is it going to take before something actually changes these laws? How many more innocent lives are going to be lost before we see the change we have been pleading for?

As soon as I heard the news of the mass shooting in Orlando I confided in my nan, who had been sat next to me at the time. She told me that 'it's okay' in hopes that I would find comfort in her words, but there is nothing okay about this situation. There is nothing remotely okay about the fact that that the people who lost their lives were supposed to be in a place that was designed to make them feel safe and accepted, where they were supposed to be okay and find pride in being themselves. This shooter had gone into their safe place and performed such an uncomprehendable and unjustifiable act of violence on the people inside.

Fifty people have lost their lives and at least another fifty have been left injured. These are people, just like you and I, they have families and they have friends, they have people that they love with everything that they are and they have been taken away from these people in such a cruel and unjust way.

I am angry, I am angry at the way that the gun laws are not being changed, and quite frankly I am disgusted how Trump has begun to use the events as a form of propaganda within his presidential campaign. The LGBT+ community is not a prop that comes in handy when you're trying to become president, we are a community in mourning of these fifty men, to use us as a prop is as disgusting as much of the rest of his campaign and to be quite frank I am sick of it.

I know that events like this happen so much more often in developing countries and nowhere near as much media coverage is given to them, if any. But this is the biggest mass shooting in American history, if this doesn't show you how badly things need to change then I am not sure how to go about explaining it to you. America needs stricter gun laws. That's a fact and as heartbroken as I am I pray to god that this is the wake up call they needed, that they are going to change how easy it is to get hold of a gun. In fact, it's easier to get hold of a gun than it is to have an abortion. That says something about the way the country is run.

This attack was out of hate towards the LGBT+ community, there is no other reason that the shooter would have been there out of all of the other clubs in Orlando. It comes in a time when the community is celebrating pride month, a time when they are supposed to be fully embracing and loving who they are. And this attack will have left so many people terrified for their lives, afraid to go to their celebrations and afraid to show who they are. I know it has left me in that state.

Please, don't forget what happened this weekend, don't let their deaths have been for nothing. We need to work for change and justice, we will get it one day. Please keep the families of those lost in your thoughts. Also please go and tell those that you love how much they mean to you, events like this put into perspective that you are so unaware of what is going to happen. Tell them you love them, tell them to keep safe. If you can, hug them. Please, don't take your life for advantage.