I am the sort of person who looks at tragedies quietly. I talk about them with my husband or my closest friends, usually not even them. I worry that I don’t have anything intelligent to say. That nothing I say will help. That nothing I say will mean anything and that saying anything will just add to the sadness. That if I say how sad I am about something that distracts from the people actually involved and I am trivializing the real pain those people are feeling.
But I can’t bottle it up this time: I am sad. I am scared.
I have many friends who identify as LGBT and they could have been there. And they could have been gone.
I live near a city with a very large LGBT community with plenty of LGBT night clubs. This could happen here.
I don’t understand why people can see this happen and run to defend their right to own guns. I find that disgusting and disrespectful. I am horrified that people can see 49 die and a whole group of people be targeted and killed and worry about their right to own guns. As if their right to own guns is more important than the people who died. And how they act shocked that anyone would insinuate guns should be controlled at all after this happens is ludicrous to me.
To a certain extent I understand why people want the right to own guns. I personally don’t have that desire and I don’t agree with that desire but I do understand. But how dare you run to defend your guns instead of running to defend people. How fucking dare you. Your guns are not more important than what happened. You can talk about your fucking guns when it comes up in a vote. Then you can defend your guns. But how fucking dare you in the wake of a tragedy think that what is important and at stake right now is your guns. How fucking dare you post anything defending guns while people are trying to grieve and process what just happened.
Look. I don’t think anyone is a bad person for wanting to own guns, I don’t think you are a bad person if you already own guns, I don’t think you are a bad person for these things and I don’t think you would do something like this. But if in the wake of a shooting, where 49 people died while they were trying to celebrate their pride in a safe place, where people survived such a thing and now have to live with that fear forever, where families and friends have to mourn the loss of their loved one due to senseless violence and your primary concern is your right to own guns I am seriously, deeply and tragically disappointed with you as a human being.
