Special Edition Gun Safety Report: Orlando Mass Shooting

"Today marks the most deadly shooting in American history. The shooter was apparently armed with a handgun and a powerful assault rifle. This massacre is therefore a further reminder of how easy it is for someone to get their hands on a weapon that lets them shoot people in a school, or a house of worship, or a movie theater, or in a nightclub. We have to decide if that's the kind of country we want to be. And to actively do nothing -- that's a decision, too. - President Barack Obama


Thank you for adding your name to the 15,000-plus individuals who have already added theirs to Gabby and Mark's call for action. It is important that we let Congress know we expect them to decide to act to save lives. Your voice matters.

White House Press Briefing

Hillary Clinton Statement on Orlando Terrorist Attack. 
In response to the terrorist attack last night at an Orlando gay nightclub Hillary Clinton released the following statement: 

“I join Americans in praying for the victims of the attack in Orlando, their families and the first responders who did everything they could to save lives.  

“This was an act of terror.  Law enforcement and intelligence agencies are hard at work, and we will learn more in the hours and days ahead.  For now, we can say for certain that we need to redouble our efforts to defend our country from threats at home and abroad.  That means defeating international terror groups, working with allies and partners to go after them wherever they are, countering their attempts to recruit people here and everywhere, and hardening our defenses at home. It also means refusing to be intimidated and staying true to our values.

“This was also an act of hate.  The gunman attacked an LGBT nightclub during Pride Month.  To the LGBT community: please know that you have millions of allies across our country.  I am one of them.  We will keep fighting for your right to live freely, openly and without fear.  Hate has absolutely no place in America. 

“Finally, we need to keep guns like the ones used last night out of the hands of terrorists or other violent criminals.  This is the deadliest mass shooting in the history of the United States and it reminds us once more that weapons of war have no place on our streets.  
“This is a time to stand together and resolve to do everything we can to defend our communities and country.”


Orlando shooting: Presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump comment
Top U.S. & World Headlines
Deadliest Attack Ever on LGBT Community Claims Lives of 50 People in Orlando, Mostly Young Latinos
On Sunday, June 12 at around 2 a.m., Omar Mateen, 29, of Fort Pierce, Florida, entered Pulse, a gay nightclub in the heart of Orlando, and opened fire on some 320 club goers. Mateen shot and killed 49 and injured over 50 in the deadliest mass shooting in American history.
All of the deceased have been identified.

A GoFundMe account has been set up for the victims and has already raised more than $1 million.

A list of the identified victims is below:

Stanley Almodovar III, 23 years old
Amanda Alvear, 25 years old
Oscar A Aracena-Montero, 26 years old
Rodolfo Ayala-Ayala, 33 years old
Antonio Davon Brown, 29 years old
Darryl Roman Burt II, 29 years old
Angel L. Candelario-Padro, 28 years old
Juan Chevez-Martinez, 25 years old
Luis Daniel Conde, 39 years old
Cory James Connell, 21 years old
Tevin Eugene Crosby, 25 years old
Deonka Deidra Drayton, 32 years old
Simon Adrian Carrillo Fernandez, 31 years old
Leroy Valentin Fernandez, 25 years old
Mercedez Marisol Flores, 26 years old
Peter O. Gonzalez-Cruz, 22 years old
Juan Ramon Guerrero, 22 years old
Paul Terrell Henry, 41 years old
Frank Hernandez, 27 years old
Miguel Angel Honorato, 30 years old
Javier Jorge-Reyes, 40 years old
Jason Benjamin Josaphat, 19 years old
Eddie Jamoldroy Justice, 30 years old
Anthony Luis Laureanodisla, 25 years old
Christopher Andrew Leinonen, 32 years old
Alejandro Barrios Martinez, 21 years old
Brenda Lee Marquez McCool, 49 years old
Gilberto Ramon Silva Menendez, 25 years old
Kimberly Morris, 37 years old
Akyra Monet Murray, 18 years old
Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo, 20 years old
Geraldo A. Ortiz-Jimenez, 25 years old
Eric Ivan Ortiz-Rivera, 36 years old
Joel Rayon Paniagua, 32 years old
Jean Carlos Mendez Perez, 35 years old
Enrique L. Rios, Jr., 25 years old
Jean C. Nives Rodriguez, 27 years old
Xavier Emmanuel Serrano Rosado, 35 years old
Christopher Joseph Sanfeliz, 24 years old
Yilmary Rodriguez Solivan, 24 years old
Edward Sotomayor Jr., 34 years old
Shane Evan Tomlinson, 33 years old
Martin Benitez Torres, 33 years old
Jonathan Antonio Camuy Vega, 24 years old
Juan P. Rivera Velazquez, 37 years old
Luis S. Vielma, 22 years old
Franky Jimmy Dejesus Velazquez, 50 years old
Luis Daniel Wilson-Leon, 37 years old
Jerald Arthur Wright, 31 years old

This Is The Gun That Committed The Deadliest Shooting In U.S. History. How was Omar Saddiqui Mateen able to carry out the deadliest massacre by a single gunman in U.S. history? By bringing “America’s gun of choice” into a closed and crowded space.
Orlando police recovered an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle at Pulse, the gay nightclub that Mateen chose as his target. He reportedly bought the AR-15 and a handgun legally within the last few days.

Without the semiautomatic rifle, which allows a shooter to fire off many rounds at once without reloading, it would have been harder to inflict quite as much damage in such a short period of time.

The AR-15 is the most popular rifle in the U.S.; there are an estimated 9 million in circulation as of 2014.

It was also the gun of choice for the massacres in San Bernardino, California, where 16 people at a holiday party were gunned down, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, where 26 children and staffers were murdered, and at the movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, where twelve were killed.

The rifle is a favorite in part because it’s highly customizable, the NRA blog notes. It also accommodates high capacity magazines that can fire off 100 rounds or more within minutes.

Another contributing factor to its popularity is the gun lobby’s fearmongering after every mass shooting. Though the federal government has never attempted to mass-confiscate guns, the NRA and other groups often warn that the government will respond to each shooting by cracking down. As a result, assault rifle sales skyrocket in the wake of each attack.

The NRA claims the rifle is primarily used for hunting, but hunters find the rifles sloppy and controversial. The model is actually marketed more toward civilians who want to play war. Colt’s first AR-15 model in the 1960s was inspired by civilian interest in the automatic version of the rifle the company had sold to the U.S. military as the M16.

This is how some manufacturers advertise AR-15s:
gunads
AR-15 style rifles were once illegal under the federal assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004. Evidence is mixed on how effective the ban was at reducing gun violence. However, as a Center for American Progress report pointed out, assault weapons like the AR-15 were significantly less regulated than handguns after the ban expired. Since the federal ban expired, some states and cities have taken it upon themselves to ban semiautomatic and automatic weapons, though Florida has not.

Parents of some of the children killed in Newtown recently advanced a lawsuit against the manufacturers of the AR-15, arguing that the companies are liable for their loved ones’ deaths because they market the gun as a military grade weapon “engineered to deliver maximum carnage with extreme efficiency.”
Here’s Your List Of Muslim Leaders Around The World That Condemned The Massacre In Orlando
Following the tragic shooting at a gay club in Orlando on Sunday that left 50 dead and about as many injured, a wave of Islamophobic rhetoric has swept the country. The gunman, Omar S. Mateen, was an American citizen born to Afghan immigrants, but that hasn’t stopped many commentators from inferring that the attack had more to do with Islam than his own views on LGBT rights...(read more)

Trump tweets congrats to self on Orlando Massacre and faces Backlash!
ORLANDO, FL - JUNE 12:  Orlando police officers seen outside of Pulse nightclub after a fatal shooting and hostage situation on June 12, 2016 in Orlando, Florida. The suspect was shot and killed by police after 20 people died and 42 were injured. (Photo by Gerardo Mora/Getty Images)

This story pretty much writes itself.   Self centered ..Donald Trump congratulates himself in the midst of mourning of the Orlando Massacre.   

I literally am watching Florida dividing and hating like I have never seen, including family members against family members.   One has no concept of the hatred coming across from Trump supporters and the people who stand against his rhetoric.  The man is a powder keg of hatred and is not only stoking hate but causing great distress within the family unit.

Like much of what Trump does, it inspired a wave of responses. It angered Republicans and Democrats as well as some celebrities who criticized with a familiar line: that Trump is self-centered even in moments of tragedy — the shooting killed at least 50 people and is the deadliest mass shooting in American history. The motives of suspected shooter Omar Mateen were not immediately clear.

John Legend, the singer and songwriter, Chris Sacca, the venture capitalist and George Takei, best known for his role on Star Trek, called Trump out on Twitter.

"Appreciate the congrats," Trump tweeted Appreciate the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism, I don't want congrats, I want toughness & vigilance. We must be smart!

Donald Trump faced a backlash on Twitter after tweeting his response to the deadly Orlando shooting Sunday morning, when he acknowledged “congrats” for “being right” on terrorism.

This is sickening and republicans and democrats hit his twitter account.  I am having an upsetting day here in Central Florida along with seeing so much happening in this state.

Please give blood.   Please remember to light a candle and pray or hope that we have no further violence down here but it is looking rather bad.  There is a lot of gay bashing, Muslim hating, rabid racism and  aggression and disrespecting women.

 Five miles from our home a 13 year old girl was physically dragged out in an attempted kidnapping standing by her Mother by a man who did not know them at all.  There were people in that store that did not help.  The Mother held on to her child and this all happened in broad daylight.  I don’t know how much is hatred fueled by Trump and the GOP or people have just gone mad.  I have no clue but terribly depressed today.

The NRA puts on silencer after Orlando massacre.
People look on during a vigil in reaction to the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida,in New York on June 12, 2016. .Fifty people died when a gunman allegedly inspired by the Islamic State group opened fire inside a gay nightclub in Florida, in the worst terror attack on US soil since September 11, 2001. / AFP / Bryan R. Smith        (Photo credit should read BRYAN R. SMITH/AFP/Getty Images)
What has the NRA had to say about the horror in Orlando? What have they said about the ability of one man to walk into a room with a military-style, rapid-fire semiautomatic rifle and shoot more than 100 people?

Here’s a hint: It’s not the sound of justifications and statistics rolling from their Twitter feed like rifle fire. It’s more like the sound that comes after. The silence. 

But they’ve been plenty loud in the recent past. Last week’s comments included cheering for open carry in Florida and for a bill in Missouri that would let people carry however they want. They’ve also had plenty of things to say about the type of rifle carried by shooter Omar Mateen.

The AR-15 and similar weapons are not hunting rifles. Yes, you could point one at a deer, but it’s the wrong tool for the job and anyone doing so should forfeit their hunting license. This is what the AR-15 is for.

The madman who killed at least 50 people and wounded 53 others at an Orlando club early Sunday was armed with an AR-15-type rifle. It’s the same style of weapon used to slaughter 20 children and six adults in Newtown, Conn., in 2012. Earlier that year, James Holmes used an AR-15 to murder 12 people and wound 70 in a movie theater in Aurora, Colo.

That is what the AR-15 is for—shooting people in numbers. It’s not a fully automatic weapon. It’s not a machine gun. However, it can fire a dozen rounds in a second. It can fire as fast as the person holding the weapon can flutter the trigger. A 30-round magazine could be emptied in three seconds. It takes another three seconds to drop and replace that magazine. Then it’s shooting again. Anyone thinking that there’s going to be a fumbling pause in the gunfire hasn’t watched one of these guns at work. They’re designed to be used in the confusion of battle. They’re designed to be operated by green troops with little training. They’re designed to make it easy to do exactly what happened in Orlando.

The NRA was quick to respond after Columbine, and after the shooting that included Rep. Gabby Giffords, and again after the theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado. They even had the godawful press conference following Sandy Hook in which they blamed the deaths on a shortage of guns in school and called for arming kindergarten teachers.

But this isn’t the first time the NRA has come up quiet.

Last fall, in the wake of a string of horrors, the NRA was surprisingly silent.

The urge to do something in the wake of mass murders with firearms is so natural and widespread that the NRA has historically felt it, in its way. This year, that national interest in doing something has returned, over and again. There was the shootout between armed bikers last May at a Waco, Texas, restaurant that killed nine and injured 18. In June, there was Dylann Roof’s racially motivated murder of nine black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina. There was the Chattanooga, Tennessee, recruiting-center shooting and the Lafayette, Louisiana, movie theater shooting and the late August killing of two Roanoke, Virginia, TV reporters by an ex-colleague, posted online for all to see. There was the Umpqua Community College shooting earlier this month, the deadliest in Oregon’s history, and the deadliest in America since 2013.

Amid this relentless carnage and a growing call for action, LaPierre has said…nothing.

But don’t think that’s because the NRA has developed a conscience. They’ve just taken their previous statements to their illogical conclusion. There’s nothing more to be said.

There is a school of thought in crisis communications that says you don’t feed a story with unnecessary public comment when you have nothing new to say. It’s possible this is the situation the NRA finds itself in today: Having gone from agreeing to close background-check loopholes to proposing more, not fewer, guns in schools in the span of two decades, the gun lobby may have reached the terminus of its product pipeline. Its policy position now seems so extreme that there’s nowhere else to go.


Stock Prices of Gun Companies Rise After Orlando Shooting



Moments of silence are NOT enough. Demand decisive action to reduce gun violence >>


The hatred-filled massacre in Orlando yesterday claimed 49 lives and left even more injured and in critical condition.


But as unspeakable acts of gun violence become the new normal in America, we can’t allow our political leaders to respond with hollow promises.


We need concrete action -- now. Demand common-sense solutions to end the epidemic of gun violence immediately >>


In the wake of this weekend’s horrific massacre in Orlando, politicians across the country have offered their response: Prayers, moments of silence, and promises for action.


But what has no one offered? A clear plan for stopping these tragedies from happening.


Not acting to stop gun violence is negligence at its worst. It’s not okay with us, and it’s not okay with President Obama either:

It’s up to us to hold our leaders accountable and call for change.

Will you sign on to demand action to end gun violence today?


Rampant gun violence is our new normal: 164 days into 2016, there have already been 174 mass shootings. And on average, 89 people die each day due to gun violence.


We can no longer accept that we’re doing everything we can to keep these tragedies from happening.


How many tragedies will it take for our leaders to wake up and take action?


Gun violence is preventable, and inaction is unacceptable. Please join our growing call for immediate action to reduce gun violence:


http://action.wagunresponsibility.org/End-Gun-Violence



Stop blocking a ban on Assault Rifles

The largest mass-shooting in American history happened Sunday morning when a man targeted a popular gay club. He used a legally purchased assault rifle to kill 50 people. This did not have to happen, Congress should passed an assault rifle ban years ago, but here we are...Again. DEMAND A BAN NOW. 

The massacre in Orlando has shaken us all to the core. While the world has responded with an incredible outpouring of love and solidarity, too many members of Congress are offering only thoughts and prayers -- but withholding meaningful action, like a ban on weapons of war.

It's a no brainer if there ever was one. And now a new petition at MoveOn is going viral fast, with hundreds of thousands of us across the US calling on Congress to honor the victims of Orlando -- with common sense, lifesaving action. See MoveOn's email below, and add your voice here.

This weekend 50 people were killed in another devastating mass shooting at a gay club in Orlando. As the news continues to peel back the layers of this terrible, tragic shooting and we grieve and mourn with Orlando and the broader LGBTQ community, we must act now for common sense gun laws and to ban assault weapons. We must stop these mass shootings from tearing apart our communities.

They shouldn't be used by civilians and they have no place in our cities and towns. Sign the petition to ban assault weapons now

If you are looking for ways to take action in the wake of the violent attacks in Orlando, you can add your signature to one of the petitions below.

1. Enact stricter weapon legislation in the City of Orlando. Orlando resident Dylan Wolstencroft started this petition after news broke on Sunday of the violent attack at Pulse nightclub. “Following the two back-to-back shootings which occurred in Orlando, Florida, one of which has now become the biggest and deadliest mass shooting in the nation's history, there is no question that there needs to be stricter weapon regulation in The City Beautiful,” Dylan writes. He’s petitioning Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer to help enact tighter gun violence legislation in his hometown.

2. Lift the ban on gun violence research. Sarah Clements’ mother taught second grade at Sandy Hook Elementary School when six of her colleagues and 20 first graders were killed by a gunman in 2012. Since then, Sarah has fought for Congress to end a ban on research into gun violence by the Centers for Disease Control.

“An average of 32 people are killed by a gun in America every day, and yet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) can’t even conduct research into the root causes of all forms of gun violence,” Sarah writes. Her petition has more than 170,000 signers and continues to gain traction in the wake of another mass shooting.

3. Improve background checks to reduce gun violence. In October of last year, a mass shooting happened in Oregon at Umpqua Community College. Since then, the group Students UNITE has been petitioning Congress to fortify a national background check system to prevent assault weapons from falling into the wrong hands.

“Everyone is affected by these mass shootings. Whether you are black, white, Latino, Asian American, Indian American, the failure of Congress to pass legislation on simple gun control laws will eventually affect all of us. For some people, it already has.” the student wrote. The petition now has more than 100,000 signers.

4. Stop discriminating and screen male blood donors equally. Currently, many gay men are unable to donate blood to local blood banks, even in times of disaster and emergency like in Orlando this past weekend. Groups like GLAAD have been pushing the FDA to change this rule, so that there can be fairness in our blood donation system and so that communities can guarantee an adequate level of blood for crises.

5. Urge President Obama to create a national monument for Stonewall. In the wake of the Orlando shootings, which happened in the heart of June – pride month for millions of LGBT people and allies – more than 14,000 people are calling on the federal government to take a stand and recognize one of the earliest symbols of LGBT rights as a national monument. On the day of the shooting, thousands of people gathered at Stonewall Park to stand in solidarity with those in Orlando.
The latest mass shooting that left 49 people dead and over 50 injured at a gay nightclub in Orlando was an act of hate against the LGBTQ community. It was an attack carried out with a gun on our country and our way of life.

Hatred comes in many different forms. But there's no reason why dangerous people filled with hate should have a gun.


As a survivor of the Virginia Tech shooting -- which, until yesterday, was the largest mass shooting in U.S. history -- I cannot believe that despite Americans getting shot and killed going about their daily lives, Congress continues to do NOTHING.


Right now, someone convicted of a violent hate crime can still legally buy a gun. Right now, someone prohibited from buying a gun can still purchase one online or at a gun show, no background check required. Right now, suspected terrorists can still legally buy a gun. In fact, reports show the Orlando shooter was twice put on the terror watch list by the FBI. [1]


Congress is considering legislation that could close these dangerous loopholes that arm hateful people, and we need to call on them to finally act. Sign our petition calling on Congress to #DisarmHate and prevent dangerous people from buying guns.
Tell Congress: Disarm hate. Take action now.
So many everyday Americans committed small acts of bravery as the tragedy unfolded. First responders ran into harm's way trying to save others. Florida citizens rushed to donate blood to the shootings victims. The LGBTQ community responded to this attack with grace, resilience, and love.

Today, we are calling on Congress to show even a fraction of the leadership that so many everyday Americans showed yesterday.


The American people are sick and tired of inaction from Congress. Our elected officials have repeatedly blocked any common-sense gun safety laws -- and we refuse to accept their inaction any longer.


Now is the time to demand Congress take action to prevent gun violence in America, by:

  • Making it illegal for people convicted of violent hate crimes to buy or possess guns
  • Making it illegal for suspected terrorists to legally buy guns
  • Requiring background checks for every gun sale, no matter where you buy a gun or who you buy it from
Our fight to end gun violence renews with fresh urgency today. Americans won't accept this violence as the new normal. We won't accept feeling afraid to go to the movies or drop our kids off at school. We won't accept women and children being shot to death by abusers and not making headlines. We won't accept our fellow Americans being shot to death because of how they look or who they love.

So step up. Speak out. Sign our petition calling on Congress to stand up and disarm hate to prevent the next tragedy at the hands of an angry man with a gun.


For the 91 Americans shot and killed every day. For the LGBTQ community. For Orlando.

Sign the sympathy card
Sign this sympathy card for the families of loved ones lost and injured in the Orlando shooting. 

As the death toll from the tragedy in Orlando continued to mount, Republican politicians were quick to offer their prayers and condolences to the families and friends of the victims.


Coming from politicians who not only refuse to act to reduce gun violence, but who also foster and promote anti-LGBT bigotry and hate through their words, their party platform and their legislative actions, those “thoughts and prayers” don’t mean much.


Breaking the NRA’s chokehold on Congress will require massive grassroots pressure on our elected officials, demanding they deliver more than thoughts and prayers in the face of our epidemic of gun violence.


Sign the petition from CREDO and Daily Kos telling Republicans in Congress: “Thoughts and prayers” are not enough. We need real gun control.


When Republicans disagree with advances in women’s rights, LGBT rights, or civil rights, they don’t just offer their thoughts and prayers, they push legislation. In just the last year, Republicans in Congress and in state legislatures across the country have worked to make abortion impossible to access, to discriminate against LGBT people, and to take away voting rights. At the same time, they have aggressively pushed the NRA’s agenda to weaken gun laws, from campus carry to permitless carry to stand your ground.


In 2014 alone, the gun lobby spent over $30 million on political advertising and lobbying to influence legislators in Congress and state capitals across the country. If Republicans really want to protect Americans, they need to break their blind allegiance to the NRA and pass gun control legislation.


If all Republicans can offer after this weekend’s massacre are their thoughts and prayers, or misguided scapegoating of Muslim communities that plays into their base’s racism and xenophobia, that speaks volumes. It shows that current Republican leaders in Congress lack the care, or courage, to act.


Tell Republicans in Congress: “Thoughts and prayers” are not enough. We need real gun control.


After Orlando, Standing Together Against a Specter of Hate. To make sense of a tragedy, an Afghan artists' group urges inclusivity.

Guns. Homophobia. Mental illness. Islamophobia. Hatred. Domestic violence. Racism. Though talking heads might try, there is no singular lens through which to reflect on Sunday morning’s horrific mass shooting at a gay club in Orlando, Florida, which left 49 people dead and another 53 wounded. Untangling this senseless violence is a daunting struggle for Americans, especially those who fear that there could be more—whether at the hands of copycats repeating the shooter’s heinous acts, or by politicians whose vitriol toward American Muslims may increase.

Within 24 hours of the attack, the Islamic State had publicly claimed the shooter—29-year-old Omar Mateen—as one of their own, sparking promises from presidential hopefuls to defeat the terrorist group.


Amid many expressions of grief, the Afghan American Artists and Writers Association stepped in Monday morning to express its “deepest solidarity with the largely queer people of color who were the victims of (the shooting) and their families.” It was Latin night at Pulse—the club where the attack took place—a night frequented predominantly by queer, trans black and Latino members of the LGBT community.


The writers group, which formed to support and amplify the work of artists and writers of Afghan descent, anticipated backlash when they learned Mateen’s parents were from Afghanistan. Some members of the small group are also Muslim and can speak to the fears that are growing in a community that has increasingly been the target of isolationist political rhetoric.


“We all recognize that there’s going to be serious blowback and that things are not going to get any better in this current political climate,” Wazhmah Osman, a spokesperson for and member of the group told TakePart. “After every incident of this kind, there’s an escalation of attacks and violence toward Muslims.”


For Osman, an academic and a filmmaker who was born in Afghanistan and grew up in New Jersey, the attacks were doubly personal because she identifies as queer. (Disclosure: Osman is a friend of the writer's.) With her peers in the AAAWA, she penned a response to the massacre in hopes of pushing back against anticipated anti-Muslim rhetoric and violence against their community.


Osman’s fears are well-founded. In 2015, there were approximately 174 incidents of anti-Muslim violence and vandalism, including 12 murders and 29 physical assaults, according to research from Georgetown University on the 2016 elections and rising violence targeting Muslims. That marks a surge from 2014, when 154 such incidents were recorded. Georgetown’s researchers note that a spike in Islamophobic political rhetoric—largely among the broad slate of Republican presidential hopefuls—began in early September 2015, coinciding with Europe’s refugee crisis.


Violent attacks are all too common in the LGBT community as well, which was Mateen’s intended target. Since the attack, Mateen’s father, Mir Seddique, told NBC News that his son had recently seen “two men kissing” in Miami and became “very angry.”


In spite of a steady increase in tolerance toward the LGBT community from all religious groups, antigay hate crimes are still disturbingly common. LGBT people are 2.4 times more likely to be the targets of violent hate-crime attacks than Jews or black people, according to a 2011 analysis of FBI hate crimes by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Black and Latino people in the LGBT community are nearly two times more likely to experience this kind of violence as their queer white peers, according to a 2013 report from the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs.


“This attack was years in the making, based off of hundreds and hundreds of years of oppression and violence targeted towards queer and trans people of color,” said a participant in a video project shared on Sunday by the organization Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement.


It’s impossible to discern whether Mateen’s alleged allegiance to the Islamic State or homophobic anger was the primary driver of what was the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. But the fact remains that he targeted a gay club during pride month.


“This is what disgusts me the most about this tragedy: The maniac who did this was somehow conditioned to believe that LGBTQ people deserve to be massacred and that they are less-than in this society,” Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign, told reporters during a press conference on Sunday. “And he wasn’t just hearing this message from faraway terrorist organizations. He was hearing it from politicians and radical anti-LGBTQ extremists right here in our own country.”


Sunday morning’s bloodshed touched numerous communities, making it even more apparent to advocates that efforts to stem hatred must be multifaceted and inclusive.


“We can no longer have an effective or moral LGBT movement unless it is also an antiracism movement, an antipoverty movement, a pro-immigrant movement, a pro-disability rights movement, a pro-worker movement, and a pro-women’s movement,” said Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality. “There are people who want to come for all of us. We have to be standing there together.”


As fingers are pointed and tears are shed, Osman hopes her collective of writers and artists can push the national conversation away from drawing connections between Omar’s Afghan descent and his act of hatred and violence.


“Mateen was born and raised in the U.S.,” said Osman. “In spite of what the media is spinning, a lot of his beliefs have to do with American militarization, access to weapons, and American notions of masculinity that aren’t necessarily [related to his being] Afghan. People are quick to say Muslim people who grow up in Western society become radicalized through their contact with the Islamic state, but a lot of it is their contact with the American state.”
Sign on to take a stand against gun violence in America

Columbine. Virginia Tech. Sandy Hook. Aurora. Charleston. And now Orlando.

When will the horrific pattern of mass shootings in our country end?


We can no longer afford silence and inaction. Please join the thousands of people who have already called for reform by signing our petition today:


The shooting in Orlando this weekend was the worst mass shooting in our nation’s recorded history.

This senseless tragedy that claimed 49 lives has made one thing abundantly clear: we cannot and will not accept inaction.

In response, thousands of grassroots activists from across the country have signed our petition calling for common-sense reform.
We’re sending a strong message that we will not back down until we’ve enacted solutions that will keep all communities safe from gun violence.


Will you join our call? Please sign our petition right now and demand immediate action to end gun violence >>


http://action.wagunresponsibility.org/End-Gun-Violence

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ORLANDO SHOOTING: THERE SHOULD BE NO QUESTION THIS WAS A QUEERPHOBIC ATTACK. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

In the immediate aftermath of the worst mass-shooting in US history, debates in the media are already focusing on what to call the tragic event. Was it a queerphobic attack, yet another instance of Islamist terrorism targeting “the West” – or simply the case of a man who, in the words of his ex-wife, was “mentally unstable”?

Contributing to the heated debate, the father of the shooter told NBC News that his son was “enraged” after seeing two men kissing in front of his family a few months ago. The public discussion eventually escalated to spectacular proportions in the UK when Guardian journalist Owen Jones walked off the set of Sky News, outraged at what he saw as the unwillingness of Mark Longhurst and Julia Hartley-Brewer to accept it as a queerphobic attack.
Orlando Memorial Service
A man sits and cries after taking part in a candlelight memorial service the day after a mass shooting at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, U.S. June 13.
Let us, however, call the tragic event for what it was: an attack on Orlando’s queer Latinx club night, Pulse. Regardless of the allegiances the shooter might have pledged, this was, without a shadow of a doubt, a queerphobic attack.
Photo published for Disgusted Owen Jones walks off Sky News over distancing Orlando from hate crime
Peter Tatchell: "The line of questioning put to @OwenJones84 would never have been put to a black or Jewish person" http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/disgusted-owen-jones-walks-out-8177606?clearcache=1 …Photo published for Disgusted Owen Jones walks off Sky News over distancing Orlando from hate crime. Disgusted Owen Jones walks off Sky News over distancing Orlando from hate crime. He was told he should "delineate" between Islamist terror and homophobia after an attack killed 50 at gay Florida nightclub Pulse. mirror.co.uk

Disgusted Owen Jones walks off Sky News over distancing Orlando from hate crime
He was told he should "delineate" between Islamist terror and homophobia after an attack killed 50 at gay Florida nightclub Pulse

When the lives of a specific group of the population are targeted purely on the basis of their sexual, racial and/or gender identifications, we are talking about a hate crime. And hate crimes must not be co-opted into dominant logics of “us versus them”. This simply serves to feed dominant and dangerously simplistic views of a world that, in positing the “free” West against an “oppressive” Islam, conveniently overlook its political complexities and nuances.

Stigmatising mental health disorders
Other prejudices have surfaced: principally the issue of whether the shooter was mentally “unstable”, as his ex-wife suggested in an interview. Reproducing, without questioning, such a portrayal of the attacker as “a normal being that cared about family” only to then be found to be unstable and “bipolar” is problematic in several ways.
Reducing such a heinous crime to an issue of mental health stigmatises people all over the world who have been struggling with mental illness. Further to that, it also glances over the problems associated with standards of “normality” and the enduring regimes of oppression and segregation that a politics of the “normal” always requires, whether consciously or not.

But perhaps most importantly here, it also uses “mental illness” to cover up all the ways in which queer people have historically been disciplined and controlled by the heterosexual establishment and its definitions of what is “normal” and/or “acceptable”.

This is not to claim that Mateen was not suffering from mental illness. Instead, what I believe is important to stress is that the boundaries between “normality” and “abnormality” are always defined in a social landscape that is always already political. And that, similarly, the power structures that allow an individual, regardless of their mental health state, to target and kill members of a social minority are the same power structures that have, for centuries, operated to classify, discipline, tame, control and, in some cases, even “heal” the bodies of those who identify with that minority.

Mourning queer lives
This leads me to my second and final point: whether the lives of those killed at Club Pulse should be mourned as queer lives or simply as “human” lives. Claiming, like many have been doing, that those were, first and foremost, “human” lives and only then accidentally queer, is yet another example of the complexities of LGBTQIA+ politics in the West.

We are living through a time when the transgender homicide rate has hit an historic high in the US, when more than 1,700 murders of transgendered individuals were reported around the world between 2008 and 2014, and when North Carolina passed a law banning people from using government-owned bathrooms that don’t match the gender they were assigned at birth.

Meanwhile, in Britain, we are still being denied free access to PrEP, a new treatment to prevent HIV infection. Let’s not forget that gay men are still rejected as blood donors and LGB youths are four times more likely to attempt suicide.

So it is telling that it only takes a brown, (supposedly) Islamist “terrorist” for queer lives to suddenly be worth mourning publicly as “human” lives. What this reveals is how the net worth of queer bodies changes depending on who or what threatens their existence, how queer lives are only grieved for when threatened by someone with an even less grievable life – in this case, a brown Muslim.

As philosopher Judith Butler has noted, “[the] differential distribution of public grieving is a political issue of enormous significance”.

It is for this reason that today – in the aftermath of the mass shooting – we must reiterate the queerness of our dead brothers and sisters and refuse to have their lives strategically turned into disembodied, undifferentiated and abstract “human” lives in the name of the “War on Terror”. Only when we do this will we be able to stress that the difference that made those bodies targets in Orlando is the same difference that makes queer people look over our shoulders and fear for our lives on an almost daily basis no matter where we are in the world.


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