Tragedy at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando

As I write this, we just experienced in Windsor- Essex perhaps the most idyllic weekend weather we’ve had in months. The riverfront was vibrantly alive with a gathering of people representing the many faces that make Windsor such an unique and amazing place to live.

And yet, I was at home inside and crying. I was (still am) crying for the 50 young lives senselessly snuffed out and the 53 critically wounded, earlier Sunday morning at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida – lives snuffed out because they happened to be gay lives and lives that did not comport to a fanatical, radically sick zealot’s religious code of beliefs. I stop, I try to think of something else and before I know it, it’s all back in my head causing me to cry again. This mass shooting has hit me the hardest since the slaughter of 26 innocent children and adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School three and a half years ago.

I had almost become immune to these too frequent occurrences in America. This one is personal. It has robbed the life of so many of a community I self-identify with. Cable news coverage of the lifeless young gay people and images of wounded and bewildered young gay people are etched in my heart. Listening to a telephone interview with a surviving young man, Carlos, reminds me that these victims are just kids. Carlos is just a kid. And Carlos just experienced the utter depth of depravity visited upon his closest friends.

And to the idiot who criticized my post on social media – accusing me of using this incident to advance my political stance on gun control, this is not the case!

When will this insanity end? When will this insanity End!

More than 50 persons were slaughtered by a lone gunman in an Orlando Florida gay nightclub and many, many more sustained life-altering injuries.

The gunman was equipped with an assault rifle, hand gun and a possible explosive device on him, before he was mercifully killed by some very brave tactical police.

Earlier on in the proceeding, an on-site armed police officer engaged the suspect in an active shooting scenario. To no avail.

So much for Donald Trump’s insane and repeated refrain that the night club shooting in France November 2015 could have been prevented if someone there had a gun. At Pulse Nightclub there WAS a trained police officer with a gun. This courageous officer was no match for the kind of fire power he faced. How the hell do we defend against the madness of armour covered fanatical cowards shooting at us with never ending clips of metal shattering bullets?

As reported in Voice of America, here is a list of America’s most recent mass shootings in the past three decades.

• December 2015: Couple kill 14 after storming California social services agency, are killed in gun battle with police.
• November 2015: Gunman kills three after storming Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic; is arrested after hours long standoff with police.
• October 2015: Gunman kills nine at Oregon community college before being killed in gun battle with police.
• July 2015: Gunman kills five at U.S. Navy Reserve center in Tennessee before being shot and killed by police.
• June 2015: Gunman kills nine people in South Carolina church before fleeing, is captured the following day, awaiting trial.
• May 2015: Nine killed in shootout between rival motorcycle clubs and police at Texas restaurant.
• October 2014: Teenage gunman kills four teens, two of whom are his cousins, in Washington state high school before committing suicide.
• September 2013: Gunman kills 12 people at a naval facility in Washington before dying in a gun battle with police.
• December 2012: Gunman kills 26 adults and children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut before killing himself.
• August 2012: Gunman kills six people at Sikh Temple in Wisconsin before committing suicide after being shot by police.
• July 2012: Gunman kills 12 people during showing of Batman movie in Colorado.
• January 2011: Gunman kills six people and wounds U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona.
• November 2009: U.S. Army psychiatrist kills 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas.
• April 2007: Virginia Tech student kills 32 people before committing suicide.
• October 2006: Gunman kills five girls in Pennsylvania Amish school before committing suicide.
• January 2006: Ex-postal worker kills eight before committing suicide in California in rare case of female shooter.
• April 1999: Two Columbine High School students kill 12 students, one teacher and themselves in Colorado.
• November 1991: Gunman kills four University of Iowa faculty members and a student before committing suicide.
• October 1991: Gunman crashes pickup truck into Texas cafe, then begins shooting; kills 23 people before committing suicide.
• August 1986: Gunman kills 14 postal workers in Oklahoma before committing suicide.
• July 1984: Gunman kills 21 people at a McDonald’s California before being killed by police.

Now add June 12, 2016, the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando Florida to the top of this list with 50 plus deaths at the time of this writing – making it now the deadliest mass shooting in US history.

The motivation behind this act of hatred is of secondary concern to me.

It will be debated long and hard that it was a hate crime, with others arguing it was an act of ISIS inspired terrorism. Some will say it was a hybrid – a fusion of hate and terror.

The motivation hasn’t changed the underlying reality of death and carnage caused by a country’s blood lust love affair with their Constitution’s Second Amendment and the right of citizens to arm themselves with weaponry best reserved for war – as a last resort to defending peace and freedom. 

Orlando, Florida has always conjured up for me images of happiness, fantasy and dreams. The home of Disney World and Epcot Centre, a retirement community for many Canadians and Americans alike, it is a city of which dreams are made and experienced. But, as of June 12, 2016, the dreams that will be identified with Orlando will unfortunately be nightmares.

Perhaps for some of you, the events of Orlando will bring into clearer perspective why, in 2016, we still need Pride Parades and Runs for Rocky. They’re about awareness. They’re about everyone’s rights and freedoms.

Friends, gather close your children tonight. Give them an extra long and loving hug. They will need it. You will need it. You will need each other …