Speechless is a powerful word. Physically being stunned into silence is usually due to a wave of emotions either euphoric or insufferable. The morning of June 12th, 2016, Alexis and I woke up from a night of partying in celebration of our friend’s wedding to news that made us speechless. It was around 10 AM when I heard Alexis say, “Oh my god” from the depths of my sleep. Still half in oblivion, I opened my eyes to her telling me 20 people died at Pulse Nightclub only hours before.
Fast forward an hour in both time and coherence, we find out not 20, but 49 people have now been pronounced dead. 49 people. Dead. 49 people dead at a club that Alexis and I have both spent many nights. 49 innocent people dancing on a Saturday with friends at an establishment whose sole purpose is to be a safe haven for the gay community.
Words fail to capture the heartbreak we both felt while crying in the midst of calling/texting our friends who could have been there or in the area and watching the news unravel on the deadliest mass shooting in US history. I called people I haven’t spoken to in years because I was so terrified to hear they were there dancing like we had so many times before.
As I received each confirmation of someone being alright, I would have a brief sigh of relief, but my heart continued to grow heavier because I knew there were friends and families who were never going to receive that call or text. The investigators dealing with the aftermath of the shooting said they had to tune out the continuous ringing and vibrating of cell phones of the victims strewn out across the floor.
These people were real. They had names and jobs and lives. Some were visiting from abroad. Most were American citizens contributing to our society. They had breaths that were taken away from them by hate, by cruelty. To be honest, it doesn’t really matter if the shooter was living a secret gay life or if he was an Islamic extremist or both. Those facts in this case are irrelevant to me. The shooter was an American citizen who legally bought an assault rifle while being on the FBI watch list. This is what matters.
Islamophobia is alive and well in our country because our media focuses on the handful of extremists that do not represent the majority of the Islamic religion. I am not a religious person by any means, but I do believe in our freedom as Americans. I do believe in our right to bear arms. I do believe in our right to religion, no matter what that religion might be and I find it funny that some people who keep preaching to “save” the 2nd Amendment are also the same people who are against Islam as a whole. Are you suggesting we leave the 2nd Amendment unscathed, while we degrade the 1st Amendment? Sounds like a game of picking and choosing to me. An eye for an eye leaves both men blind.
The fact of the matter is, our country has a national health crisis of gun violence. There are multiple studies that show the likelihood of using a gun for protection over homicide/suicide is nil. We need some kind of revision in legislation to make a change in these numbers of death that increase every day. More lives are being taken away every day.
You can tell me all you want it’s the person and not the gun, but I want everyone who truly believes that who is reading this to take a second to ponder this. If Alexis was kidnapped, tortured, brutally raped and killed in a basement the chances of me buying a gun off Craigslist and going to kill that son of a bitch are very high. I’d like to think I’m a decent human being that has morals and knows right from wrong. This does not change the fact that I see red sometimes. WE ALL see red sometimes. Every, single, person on this planet has the potential to kill someone when put in a compromising circumstance. The world we live in today is very scary and has a lot of people’s tensions running high. Easy access to firearms makes it scarier and deadlier, point blank.
These are things we have to consider when talking about gun reform. It’s not an easy conversation to have. People feel strongly one way or another, but our solution so far has been “do nothing”. So we’ve done nothing and gun violence continues to sky rocket. This isn’t just an issue on a ballot anymore, it’s THE issue and we all have a moral obligation to our country to find a solution. It is imperative to our future as a nation.
I pray for peace within our citizens. I pray for our African American brothers and sisters as we fight for their freedom of prejudice. I pray for the gay community as we continue to face the adversities of discrimination. I pray for our law enforcement that mostly consists of outstanding citizens who wake up in the morning to risk their lives so that we can all be safe. I pray for balance within our government. I pray for the conservatives to loosen their grip on their ideals and for the liberals to meet conservatives halfway.
You see, I pray (to whom or what I’m not sure) and then I seek action because action is what’s going to heal us. Neither left nor right is faultless in the mess we’ve created and it’s urgent that we all come to terms with this rather than pointing fingers. We need to find some common ground. We need to have constructive conversations that produce results. We can’t keep bickering and stomping our feet. It’s not just a suggestion anymore, it’s essential.
The potential to stop the violence is within our reach; harness and utilize it. I am proud to be an American and I pray that we soon become United again.
