Essay:Be Thankful for Orlando

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We should be thankful the Orlando shooting happened the way it did, because it will be a lot harder for Republicans to blame the left for trying to implement its evil agenda.


Let's take a look back at some famous mass shootings in America's great history. You have the San Ysidro Massacre (go Google it), where a guy walks into a McDonald's and slaughters a bunch of people. That could be helpful in preventing future events, as he called a mental health facility hours before shooting saying he needed help, but said 'screw it' when they didn't answer his call in time. But nothing was done after that in mental health or firearms.


The Columbine shooting was blamed on bullying and teenage subcultures, when in fact the reality was far different. You can go Google it if you want to know, but suffice it to say that no meaningful action was taken by society afterwards to prevent future incidents. Virginia Tech is another incident. A small legal loophole allowed the killer to buy guns legally even though he had a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation. The guy even recorded videos of him saying he was misunderstood and ill. The things that were done beforehand weren't enough, and no new changes were made afterwards. Think about the Sandy Hook murderer. Media blamed several things, such as mental health, access to guns, and even violent video games. But no solutions were offered. And the other people who did offer solutions weren't listened to. In all of the final police reports about these incidents, no solutions are ever offered. There's no concluding paragraph that says "Hey, maybe we should've done this! If we enact this new law/policy, events like this one might be prevented in the future!" If the cause is even mentioned at all, it's usually some dry thing like "Perpetrator had mental issues that were ignored and odd obsessions".


So what does this have to do with the Orlando nightmare? A lot, actually. In this case, a mentally ill man, who was also an Islamic extremist that had an irrational, self-hating fear of gays, as well as easy access to firearms, goes and shoots the most people in American history. New record everyone! I guess it makes sense, seeing as he had all of the issues combined. But here is at last, finally, a case where the causes are pretty clear, at least to me and a few million other people on the internet. I just love the media and how they keep saying "people are trying to discover why this man committed this terrible massacre". Is it not obvious? There were a variety of different reasons, all of which could've been addressed by society through the government.


Mental issues? Maybe back on September 11, 2001; when the guy was pretending he was a plane hijacker in a public bus before the second tower had even fell, someone could've reported him to a psychiatric ward? Maybe when he wanted to bring a gun to class the day after Virginia Tech they should've called the police? If government funded mental health more to make it bigger and faster, that could've helped put him on a no-gun list and probably prevented this massacre. Access to firearms? Ban people who have been investigated by the FBI more than twice for terrorism from owning weapons. My God, what a novel idea! While we're at it, let's ban assault rifles (like the AR-15 he used), magazines with more than 10 rounds, and institute universal background checks. Islamic extremism? Well, that's more complex. I don't support a China-like 'Great Firewall' for ISIS propaganda that would've stopped him from seeing the nasty videos. I do think the government should oppose the construction of mosques funded by Muslim countries, and radical imams should be watched by the FBI the way it watches KKK organizations. Gay self-loathing? Well, make society tolerant of gays. We're already most of the way there on that one, but unfortunately this whacko lived in a Muslim bubble where his father kept telling him how bad men kiasing each other is. So make it harder for those bubbles to form. American society should be tolerant of everything but intolerance. People who hold regressive barbaric views on issues like homosexuality should be socially ostracized to the point where they don't want to hold those views anymore. I know it's hard for society to take the red pill hear the truth, but it needs to.

Update[edit]

I guess we shouldn't be thankful after all. After the weakling Democrats ended their sit-in in Congress, the Republican House just indefinitely delayed votes on gun control. This just goes to show how weak and cowardly Democratic lawmakers are, willing to be pushed around by their opposition in Congress. I'm now sure no good gun control measure will pass.