Pulse Nightclub
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At 2:00 AM on June 12, a 29-year-old man walked into gay nightclub, Pulse, in Orlando, Florida, and opened fire on the 350 people inside. He was armed with an assault rifle and a Glock, took hostages, and by 5:00 AM, 50 people were dead and 53 were injured. The shooter, Omar Marteen, was killed in a shootout with police. This mass shooting is the worst in U.S. history.
Twenty minutes into the shooting, Marteen called 911 and and claimed an allegiance to ISIS. It is now known that Marteen worked with a security company that has contracts with the federal government and has been there since 2007.
Our daughter lives in Orlando, not far from Pulse.
So my Sunday morning began with text messages from our friend Melissa, who used to live next door to us in Boynton, saying there had been a mass shooting in Orlando and was Megan okay? I immediately texted Megan, who said she was fine and that all of her friends were too. But one of her friends, Jon, had been working at Pulse last night as a valet. Parking isn’t free and when drivers pull in without paying, Jon always approaches them and tells them it’s five bucks to park. But at 1:30 AM on the morning of June 12, a car pulled into the lot without paying and Jon didn’t approach the driver. That decision may well have saved his life. The driver was Omar Marteen.
A while later, Jon was talking to the security guard outside the club and an alert came over the guard’s radio that there was shooting inside the club. The guard told Jon to run and he raced across the street to Dunkin’ Donuts. The scene was total chaos, with other people fleeing the club and running toward Dunkin’ Donuts, some of them bleeding, all of them terrified. Marteen shot one of those fleeing people in the back and the man fell at Jon’s feet. Jon saw two other people shot as they fled toward Dunkin Donuts.
Megan was with Jon this morning and he broke down, sobbing.
With any mass event, particular an act of such hatred and terror like this one, the aftermath usually reveals stories like Jon’s, synchronicities that saved lives.
There will undoubtedly, eventually, be a ban on assault weapons. However, and sadly, just as alcohol was obtained during the prohibition of alcohol, assault weapons will continue to be obtained by those who want them. They will become a “black market” item, alongside all the narcotic street drugs that are sold under the radar, (and often in full view of law officers who are afraid to approach the sellers, as happens in broad daylight in a certain area of my own city here), and alongside cigarettes that continue to be sold to minors. If it were possible to cease the CREATION of these assault weapons….to actually make the MANUFACTURING of them unlawful and the punishment for manufacturing them among the highest felonies, we would see progress. Unfortunately, the military requires assault weapons, so they will always be manufactured. Criminals who are intent upon destruction will always acquire the necessary items needed to build his or her own weapons and bombs…..items that are readily available not simply in stores and shops but on the internet.
Passing gun control laws is putting a finger in the hole of a wall that contains billions of gallons of water. There must be additional resolutions to a horrific problem that has escalated during the past few decades. It’s an issue that didn’t exist when I was a child. Schools were safe then. It was safe for little children to play outside in their yards without fears of being snatched or molested. Children could go to Saturday matinees at movie theaters without adult supervision, and we were safe. Churches were sacred sanctuaries that knew no violent acts. Certainly there was crime, and the KKK was alive and well and active. But these current atrocities have emerged and increased through the years as a result of various contributing factors, many of which begin in the home, and those contributing factors must also be addressed and corrected in addition to gun control. OK. I’ll step off my soapbox now.
On a different note but the same subject…..I am reading on the computer and seeing
on TV so very many demonstrations of LOVE that are literally streaming out of the hordes of humanity around the entire world. These are not simply groups of our LGBT brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, and close friends. Thousands of these folks are heterosexual, “straight” people……weeping genuine tears, lighting candles, holding vigils, HOLDING EACH OTHER, honoring and respecting the souls, all so awfully young, who have left their earthly lives far too soon, and those who remain but are injured, and those who have been left behind to grieve and mourn. Perhaps, in these initial days of shock and horror, we might pause and reflect not on the political aspects of this, the worst mass shooting in the history of our country, and instead, at least for now, allow ourselves to be inspired by the chain of Caring that is joining multitudes everywhere around the globe, in support of those who were intimately attached to this tragic atrocity. As one celebrity wept onstage at an award show said through his utter devastation, “LOVE IS LOVE IS LOVE IS LOVE IS LOVE IS LOVE IS LOVE IS LOVE IS LOVE!” We must address the policies that allowed the event to occur, yes. But just for now; just for a little while. might we embrace and focus on the LOVE? In utmost humility, I do.
Maybe this event will end up in a ban on assault weapons. This is the 15th time – I think that’s the figure – that Obama has spoken out on shootings during his 8 years in office. No wonder his hair has grayed.
Good to know Megan was safe and sorry for the trauma of her friend. Particularly as these shootings are arranged by the government itself to blame the “terrorist enemy” , ramp up fear in us all and to change gun laws in America, But paradoxically gun sales spike after such events. Anything on mainstream news is a false matrix to brainwash and deceive & it works just great because people just can’t believe their own governments would do this!
The twin towers hit is now widely known to have been an inside job & there is plenty of proof, including the fact the owner is now facing legal action from insurance companies having insured the towers for billions just before the hit!
I remember when Obama made his extraordinary speech here in Tucson, to a capacity crowd of a thousand, after Gabrielle Gifford was shot, and so many died, including a little girl five years ago. But nothing changed, and we continue to be held hostage by gun lobbys and the underlying machismo and violence of American culture. And it is always a young man – the elephant in the room that no one ever talks about.
I hear a comment this evening about how Obama could sign an executive order banning assault rifles. But the NRA wouldn’t allow it. Now it’s possible that I heard this wrong, but my immediate reaction was, Huh? Really? The NRA trumps executive action?
Please know that in my previous comment I was not by any means suggesting the use of torture and/or violence to stop terrorists. I am a pacifist and abhor war and killing in all its many forms. My thoughts, hopes, wishes are more aligned with attempting to find or create some types of measures….somehow, some way….that could bring an end to the hatred among humans that breeds the increasing atrocities. I haven’t got the answer; just the soul-deep desire for Harmony. If each person could simply learn to accept the DIFFERENCES that abound in our cultures, (the differences that are positive, not negative), no matter what those differences may be, eventually Peace could become a reality. THAT is my desire, and it takes great and abiding strength of Will and Intent to achieve such change. It must begin with the leaders who are in power world-wide. My prayer…..is this possible? Perhaps during the lifetime of our grandchildren it might be attained.
Needless to say has had big news coverage over here. My gosh, the trauma Jon must be going through – he must have something important to do in life after such a synchro. Glad Megan is okay.
I am reminded of a dream a few years ago where some one told me that people were something that happened to God – like God got a disease. The bible says (or the Catholic church said) that we are made in God’s image. We’ll we’re pretty sick now. Poor God!
Soooo depressing.
Interesting dream, Adele!
I think our entire country is in quiet chaos. Until we have people in positions of power who are not afraid to speak out against enemy entities and instead use the same rhetoric repeatedly without taking action, it will continue and will get worse. America seems to have become a land of wussy leaders who fear stepping on the toes of obvious terrorist murderers. I, too, am glad Megan and her friend are doing OK. This kind of heinous atrocity puts us all in a state of utter shock. Prayers go out to the loved ones of the victims.
Chaos, for sure. But I don’t think it’s very quiet.
Getting tough with terrorists, torturing them, killing their families – as we have done – only creates more terrorists. Violence as the answer to violence is no answer.
I’m so glad your daughter and her friend are safe. What a shocking brush with destiny. Like people who miss a train / plane that ends up crashing. There is so much more pre-destined than I realized.
Thanks, Shiela. He’s traumatized. I think that whole city is in shock.