Tragedy in Orlando Opens Eyes to Islamaphobia and Gun Control

At this point, everybody has heard about the tragedy that struck Orlando, Florida late Saturday night. In what is now being called the deadliest mass shooting in the United States, 49 innocent people lost their lives and 53 more were injured. Due to the fact that this attack happened during what is considered “America’s favorite LGBT vacation experience”, there is no doubt that the shooter had homosexual motivations.

The shooter, a 29-year-old man named Omar Mir Seddique Mateen, entered the Pulse, an Orlando gay nightclub that was open to celebrate the end of the “Gay Days” festival. He opened fire with an AR-15 assault rifle, a handgun, and “an unidentified device.” This resulted in a shootout with police, leading to the perpetrator’s death.

The fact that the shooter happens to be Muslim has thrown a certain lens over the entire affair. He is rumored to have called 911 earlier that morning in order to pledge the attack to ISIS. However, since no audio recording of such a call has been released, there is no actual proof of this claim’s accuracy. Despite the fact that Mateen’s own father has insisted that the shooting “had nothing to do with religion”, the American sentiment of Islamaphobia has taken over. Mateen’s father, Seddique Mir Mateen, acknowledged that his son has exhibited homosexual tendencies in the past. Despite these testimonies, much of the general public has a very hard time letting go of the possibility that perhaps this horrific event wasn’t a radical act of Islamic terrorism.

Also on the tip of everybody’s tongues in the wake of this tragedy is gun policy. Mateen was a man already under the FBI’s microscope. He was investigated due to possible links with terrorist threats in both 2013 and 2014, both in both cases there wasn’t enough evidence for him to be charged with anything. If this is the case, why was it so easy for Mateen to purchase the AR-15 rifle that killed so many? Really, it was because he was not under investigation at the time. If this misfortune has any silver lining, it is that it has furthered a dialogue on the topic of gun purchasing and on the Second Amendment.

Each survivor of the attack on the nightclub gave their own, unique, horrific testimony as to what happened. Their words shed light on the appalling conditions of that night. One man, Brand White, described the scene in saying that “We were all dancing and all of a sudden it just started like a rolling thunder, loud and everything went black.”

Another visitor of the club, Brandon Wolf, was in the bathroom when Mateen opened fire. “All I heard was gunfire after gunfire,” he said. “Eventually, I thought you were supposed to run out of ammunition. But it just kept going and going.”

The scene rapidly escalated to a hostage situation. There were roughly 30 people trapped inside of the nightclub until 5 AM on Sunday, when the police drove an armored vehicle through the wall of the nightclub in order to free them.

Though the happenings of this past weekend resulted in the greatest loss of life on American soil since 9/11, a dialogue has been created that could very well stir up some actual change. Attention has been drawn to the current outrageous policies that surround the buying and selling of armed weapons, and to the great feeling of Islamaphobia that has a chokehold on the American public. Hopefully, lessons can be learned from this tragedy and change will ensue.

Featured Image via Philly Influencer/Adrian Fedkiw