My Thoughts on Orlando and Assault Weapons

By now we all know about the terrible attacks that happened Saturday night, absolutely horrible news. What is even worse is that IMO you can't even say this was shocking news with the climate of this country right now. It's really messed up but it feels like there is some sort of attack either on U.S. soil or abroad every few weeks. Just off the top of my head in the last few years there has been Aurora, Sandy Hook, Boston Marathon Bombing, Arizona, San Bernardino, Brussels, Frances. I'm sure there are tons more I'm forgetting, but what almost all of those attacks have in common is crazy people with access to assault weapons. I just know at least once a month I feel like I see Obama giving some speech about a horrible attack happening, how we need to stop the senseless violence, a bunch of people in politics tweet "thoughts and prayers for the families and victims of __________" yet nothing changes and more innocent people are killed for no reason. It's sickening. 

What makes Orlando even more tough to deal with is how many hot button topics are thrown into the mix with this awful attack. It's hits almost everything that is pressing,  it happened at a gay night club, to gay men, with automatic assault weapons, by a man who appears to be of middle eastern descent with possible radical ties. It's like the most 2016 crime possible. 

It's only Monday and the wound is still very fresh as this attack happened not even 72 hours ago. News is still coming out, and with what I've read and watched it seems foggy as to whether or not the attacker has direct ISIS connections. It appears that he did, I've seen both sides but honestly that doesn't matter to me whether or not religion played a part in the crime. We all know how awful ISIS is and how bad radical terrorists are, tbh that doesn't matter to me as much for this because what I'm concerned about is the automatic assault weapons used in this act. Because there are gonna be people with hate no matter what, hate is something as old as time, and there are gonna be sick people, but how easy it is to get these killing machines is terrifying. It also doesn't matter to me that it was at a gay club, what matters is that was over 50 people killed, doesn't matter who they were attracted to, 50+ people are dead. Deadliest mass shooting in United States history, where it happened doesn't matter, the fact that it happened does. Obviously the Muslim and gay tag(s) make it a much bigger, sexier news story but if someone killed 50 random people at a grocery store it's still a horrible act. 

In recent years it seems much more prevalent that someone(s) gets their hands on these weapons and awful things happen. What is even worse is how many of these people who were known threats, this fucking coward in Orlando had already been questioned by the FBI multiple times and still was able to legally. That is fucking mind blowing, my mom said to stop swearing so much on here but that is warranted. How the hell can we know this piece of shit has a possible terrorist background from a fucking $20 background check yet he was allowed to buy assault weapons? I hate when people say guns don't kill people, people kill people because that's bullshit. Guns don't just shoot for no reason, they're useless without a person behind them.

It's just a really messy, sensitive situation. I don't want to get into politics but how can you not be terrified as an American right now? All three potential presidential candidates have SERIOUS red flags and things in the US are only getting worse.I'm not afraid to say I'm scared, I am, everybody should be.  How do we stop these attacks? Other countries don't have nearly the same amount of murders as we do in the U.S., guns have EVERYTHING to do with it.

I've been saying it for years, I think guns in this country are the ultimate Catch-22. You can't just take them away from people who have them now, or make them "more illegal". That will never work and create even more of a black market. Plus it's not like people who want to murder dozens of innocent people care about laws. I'm anti guns, but I've thought about getting one just to protect myself, you never know who is gonna just snap one day and take a bunch of people, even though I don't want to have a gun, I'd rather be prepared. But IMO there is no reason whatsoever for a civilian to own assault weapons. You love guns? Tough shit, you're a weirdo, get a normal hobby. Even if it's just a "collection" and you're a gun fan I don't think it matters. Get a new fucking hobby you nutcase. Collect baseball cards or something that can't kill a ton of people in a blink of an eye. I don't wanna hear the 2nd Amendment BS either, as a history major most of the constitution is outdated. It's not 1776 anymore. If you want to have a handgun to protect your home from intruders that's one thing, having a room in your house that looks like it's from a movie with 25 AKs and other automatic assault weapons that's another. The fact that countless numbers of people can get an AR-15 pretty easily is insane to me. IMO guns are killing machines, that's why they were invented, why else does a person want one of those in their home? Guns for protection and for mass murder are apples and oranges IMO.

The one thing I thing we can and should do is make it much, much more difficult to buy these types of guns. There should be multiple mental tests you have to pass, multiple background tests you should have to pass, you should need references, you should need legit reasons you want to have this gun. Maybe that will help? Obviously there will still be ways for people to slip through the cracks illegally, but if we make it much more difficult to acquire these weapons, it has to help at least a little bit. I mean again lets look at the timelines...in fact the New York Times just came out with a great piece on the all the recent shooters mental makeups and how they were still able to get weapons. Adam Lanza from Sandy Hook had a known history of mental illness and still was able to buy guns and murder 26 people, mostly children. This Mateen ass hole bought his guns legally when he had issues. John Houser, was denied a gun permit in 2006 because of his past, then was allowed to legally buy guns in 2014, he killed 2 people at movie theater. There are countless other examples.

I don't know what else to do, I mean I'm just a 24 year old fake blogger that lives in his dad's basement, I'm not the idea man for the U.S. government, they're the ones that need to do something, and do something drastic. IDK maybe my blog sucks and makes no sense, but to me it does, we cannot just say things, we need to make changes, this country is absolutely fucked if we do not. We cannot have another shooting in 3 weeks where countless innocent people are killed in cold blood for no fucking reason. These attacks can happen to anyone, at any time, anywhere, when is enough going to be enough?


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Seriously, read this from NYT, it's sickening but a must read.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/10/03/us/how-mass-shooters-got-their-guns.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0