Politicising Innocent Blood

The bodies of twenty murdered Floridian clubbers are not yet cold, and already hysteric calls for gun control are circulating social media. This is sadly nothing new; every time a horrible event of similar nature occurs we hear the same tired refrain – we need more gun control! I find such blatant politicising of atrocity disgraceful, repulsive, and inexcusable. Even more so considering that we are in no way sufficiently acquainted with the facts of what actually happened to draw any meaningful conclusions from the event at all.

People, humans like you and I, died today. Shocked survivors are dealing with indescribable trauma as we speak. Families have not yet begun to grieve. Does the magnitude of the event completely escape those who seek to stamp their own agendas on it? It certainly appears so.

All that we know for certain is that earlier today a man identified as Omar Mateen walked into an Orlando, Florida nightclub called Pulse and begun to mow down patrons in a mass killing spree. Pulse is a gay nightclub, and Mateen is suspected by the FBI of having “leanings toward Jihadist ideology”. Mateen killed at least 20 clubbers and wounded more than 40 before taking over 30 hostages. He was killed by a SWAT team during what appears to have been a successful hostage rescue. Police reports from the scene suggest that Mateen was well prepared to perpetrate his killing-spree, and was possibly wearing something resembling a suicide vest at the time.

Does this indicate that Mateen was a radical Islamic terrorist who specifically targeted a gay nightclub? Maybe: the facts are in much too short supply for anyone to draw concrete conclusions from them, but we will know the truth before too long. Patience.

What we do know is that the club in question was a gun-free zone:

(12)(a)  A license issued under this section does not authorize any person to openly carry a handgun or carry a concealed weapon or firearm into: . . .
12. Any portion of an establishment licensed to dispense alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises, which portion of the establishment is primarily devoted to such purpose;

Thus another deadly shooting that occurred in a gun-free zone. There can be no good guys with guns to stop bad guys with guns if the law prohibits the good guys from carrying their guns. Since only law-abiding people obey laws in the first place, it stands to reason that the law has no preventative effect in stopping criminals and terrorists at all. Criminals and terrorists do, after all, break laws as a crucial part of their careers. They don’t care that murder, theft, rape, assault, and reckless driving are against the law, so why would they care about gun control laws? Of course they won’t! There is nothing that make gun control laws special enough to be obeyed by the lawless.

One thing that gun control laws are exceptionally good at, is turning citizens into defenceless victims who have no choice but to hope for the best while they await police response, which may take many minutes to arrive on-scene. A determined killer can do a lot of damage to innocent people in a couple of minutes if he isn’t stopped. The evidence in this regard tragically speaks for itself. The entire massacre could have been averted if some of the patrons were armed and responded to the shooter. He would most certainly not have had the luxury of shooting over 60 people and taking another 30 hostage. But nobody could intervene because the very law that is supposed to protect people left them at the mercy of a murderer.

If you seriously believe that the reason things like this happen is because Americans aren’t tough enough regarding their gun control laws, then you forget that laws have never stopped bad people from getting access to weapons ever. And it will never stop them. When a person sees other people as subhuman, and justifies their slaughter through some deeply-held personal belief, then we are dealing with a far more complex problem than mere gun control. Thinking otherwise is childish folly.

I am deeply saddened and angered by what has happened in Orlando, Florida. The hateful slaughter of innocents who meant nobody harm and who were only trying to have an enjoyable night out is intolerable and abhorrent. I wish the survivors and families of the deceased all the strength in the Universe with the indescribably difficult process of making sense of it all and piecing back together shattered lives. What happened in Orlando is unforgivable, and it will not be fixed by gun control. Godspeed.