On Sunday, June 12th of 2016, one man walked into a nightclub called Pulse in Orlando Florida, around 2:02 a.m. and 5:15 a.m. The man shot and killed 49 people and injured 53. This event became the biggest U.S. mass shooting in recent history, and devastated countless people. Pulse was one of the best-known gay clubs in the city, and it was packed full that night, people dancing, drinking, laughing and having a good time, completely unaware of the horrific turn their lives were about to take. The people of Orlando suffered a tragic blow that night and many are still suffering. Junior Jacob Colecio was familiar with someone who was there that night, “My baseball coach is a police detective, and was inside of Pulse when the shooting started. He tried to stop the gunman and they had a shoot out. A couple days after I heard about the shooting I saw him and he told me a little about what happened. He said he tried to stop the man, but he was afraid to accidentally hurt a civilian in the chaos.” Freshman Jordyn Gass said, “I felt personally attacked by the Pulse shooting because I am a member of the LGBT community and this is an attack on us all.”
Jordyn Gass showing off her support for the Pulse victims. Photo donated.
Unfortunately attacks like these continue around the world. For example, while millions of people celebrated the coming of the New Year, one man in Istanbul, Turkey walked into a nightclub by the name of Reina, shooting and killing 39 people. It only took the gunman 7 minutes to kill these people, and he had carefully planned his attack, shooting people point blank instead of just spraying bullets around the room. At the moment about 36 people are being held for being related to the incident, but the actual gunman remains missing. ISIS has reportedly taken responsibility for the attack, gloating over the fact they they have, allegedly, carried out the first terror attack of the new year. Whether this is true or not has not been confirmed. This tragedy marked the beginning of a bleak year for many people who were injured or lost loved ones on that fateful day.
Most recently, there was another mass shooting in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. A lone gunman took a one-way trip from Alaska to Florida, the only thing on his mind – the intent to kill. The shooter killed 5 people and injured 6 more, and over 40 people were hurt in the rushed evacuation of the airport, a result of fear. ABC News has confirmed the identities of several of the suspects, “Olga Woltering, 84, a great-grandmother from Marietta, Georgia; Michael Oehme, 57, a land surveyor from Council Bluffs, Iowa, who owned his own business, Boundaryline Surveys; and Terry Andres, 62, of Virginia Beach, Virginia, who was on his way to a cruise to celebrate his birthday; and Shirley Timmons, 70, from Senecaville, Ohio.” These people were just innocent people at the wrong place at the wrong time. The suspect, Esteban Santiago was a security guard in Alaska, also where he was formerly a member of the Alaska Army National Guard for about two years, until he was discharged for unsatisfactory performance. He had spent nine years in the National Guard and spent 10 months touring Iraq. Reportedly, he had returned a different man from Iraq, fine at some moments but lost or confused others. Santiago had actually went to the FBI office in Anchorage, claiming he was hearing voices and being told by intelligence agencies to watch ISIS videos. He was given to local authorities and submitted to a mental health evaluation. Local authorities are still investigating Santiago’s motives and have not crossed out anything, but are considering possible terrorism.