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The Orlando Mass-Shooting
Atomika
Live fast and get fucked or whateverRegistered User regular
Live fast and get fucked or whateverRegistered User regular
THINGS THIS THREAD IS NOT:
- A DISCUSSION ABOUT GUN CONTROL
- AN ARGUMENT ABOUT RELIGION
I will report people otherwise
What a thing to wake up to. I feel like fleeing as fast as I can, but where to? The world is a ball of hate right now, and it feels like everyone has a bead on people like me.
The story:
The LA Times has a report on the alleged gunman:
Tentatively, this has all the ear marks of a premeditated act of terrorism likely rooted in religious extremism.
Thoughts and much love to the victims and families at this time. I'm so incredibly sorry.
UPDATES TO OP:
- Info about the alleged shooter - The takeaway here is despite being on a federal terror watch list, he was licensed to carry firearms and probably purchased his weapons through legal means.
- A drag show was the main feature that night at the club
- Family says attack was rooted in non-religiously-motivated homophobia
- FBI investigated Omar Mateen in 2013 and 2014 for ties to Islamic jihadists
- Mateen's weapon was AR-15, confirms police chief
- Shooter's father makes statement:
- possible terror suspect arrested in West Hollywood in possession of assault rifles and explosives
- A DISCUSSION ABOUT GUN CONTROL
- AN ARGUMENT ABOUT RELIGION
I will report people otherwise
What a thing to wake up to. I feel like fleeing as fast as I can, but where to? The world is a ball of hate right now, and it feels like everyone has a bead on people like me.
The story:
Mayor Buddy Dyer said 50 people were killed and dozens more wounded in the attack at Pulse Orlando, a gay club just south of downtown.
Police Chief John Mina said the tragedy began at 2:02 a.m., when three police officers engaged in a gun battle with a suspect outside the club. A hostage situation then took place inside, and a SWAT team was called in, Mina said. Police received updates from patrons trapped in the club, and decided to storm the club at about 5 a.m.
"Our biggest concern was further loss of life," Mina said. "We exchanged gunfire with the suspect, and he was dead at the scene."
A federal law enforcement official told USA TODAY the suspect had been identified as Omar Mateen of Port St. Lucie, Fla.
Orlando nightclub shooting: What we know
Mina said 42 people were transferred to local hospitals, and one officer was wounded. He said at least 30 people were rescued.
"Tonight our community witnessed a horrific crime... that will have a lasting effect on our community," a solemn Dyer said.
FBI Special Agent Ronald Hopper said the case was being investigated as a possible act of terrorism, either domestic or international. It was not clear if the shooter acted alone, he said. He said authorities were trying to determine if there was a connection with radical Islam.
"We do have suggestions that the individual may have leanings toward that particular ideology," Hopper said.
A federal law enforcement official told USA TODAY investigators were reviewing the attacker’s possible utterances that may provide more specific information about a terror ideology or affiliation. The official, who was not authorized to comment, characterized the attack as “certainly’’ terrorism. It was not immediately clear whether investigators were aware of the attacker prior to the assault.
Mina said the gunman was armed with an assault rifle, a handgun and some sort of unidentified device. Officers from multiple agencies and dozens of emergency vehicles responded to the scene. Orange County Fire and Rescue called for gurneys to move victims from the club.
Many of the casualties were rushed to Orlando Regional Medical Center, which was placed on lockdown.
"We can confirm this is a mass casualty situation. Support from local/state/federal agencies," Orlando police tweeted about four hours after events began to unfold. Then, a short time later: "Pulse Shooting: The shooter inside the club is dead."
The White House said President Obama was getting updates on the case from Homeland Security.
Mina said there was no indication that there was more than one shooter. A bomb squad was at the scene, and police reported conducting a "controlled explosion."
Hours after the shooting, police were still trying to piece together what happened.
"Anyone who was at Pulse nightclub and was a witness Please come to the Orlando Police HQ," the department tweeted. "Any information you have could aid investigators in this case."
The LA Times has a report on the alleged gunman:
- The gunman has been identified as 29-year-old Omar Mateen, a U.S. law enforcement official said.
- He was killed by law enforcement. He had an assault rifle, handgun and another "device."
- Mateen lived in Fort Pierce, Fla., the law enforcement official said. Fort Pierce is about 120 miles south of Orlando on the state's Atlantic coast.
- The FBI says they cannot rule this out as an act of domestic terrorism.
Tentatively, this has all the ear marks of a premeditated act of terrorism likely rooted in religious extremism.
Thoughts and much love to the victims and families at this time. I'm so incredibly sorry.
UPDATES TO OP:
- Info about the alleged shooter - The takeaway here is despite being on a federal terror watch list, he was licensed to carry firearms and probably purchased his weapons through legal means.
- A drag show was the main feature that night at the club
- FBI investigated Omar Mateen in 2013 and 2014 for ties to Islamic jihadists
- Mateen's weapon was AR-15, confirms police chief
- Shooter's father makes statement:
- Per ex-wife, Mateen was violent and mentally unstable, beating her shortly before she left him.“We are apologizing for the whole incident. We weren’t aware of any action he is taking, we are in shock like the whole country. This had nothing to do with religion,” the gunman’s father, Mir Seddique, said. However, he also claimed his son got very angry when he saw two men kissing in downtown Miami recently.
“We were in Downtown Miami, Bayside, people were playing music,” Seddique said. “And he saw two men kissing each other in front of his wife and kid and he got very angry. They were kissing each other and touching each other and he said, ‘Look at that. In front of my son they are doing that.’ And they we were in the men’s bathroom and men were kissing each other.”
- possible terror suspect arrested in West Hollywood in possession of assault rifles and explosives
Atomika on
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Thoughts go out to the families of the victims.
This is definitely going to be a topic at Pride in a couple of weeks, the community here responds with empathy and solidarity to acts of violence.
Per ABC:
So maybe not the "Watch List," per se? It seems like he had a profile and had been flagged, though.
new update shines some light on that
It's the inevitable endgame of buying into hateful ideology, regardless of justification
With that said, What a fucking tragedy, Go out for a fun night and now 50 families are devastated and 50 others miserable and in turmoil.
Pretty sure they did the same thing after either sandyhook or aurora, too.
You can't give someone a pirate ship in one game, and then take it back in the next game. It's rude.
The family has already acknowledged their son was the shooter.
And after those two, nothing changed.
I'm not optimistic about anything changing after this one either.
Well, except for yet more discrimination against brown people.
and Pat Robertson saying that us LGBT had it coming for causing brownouts or droughts or some shit
I feel bad for the fresh wave of hate you guys are about to get as well.
Fuck everything about this.
The license numbers: https://licensing.freshfromflorida.com/access/individual.aspx search "Mateen Omar"
Well of course it was.
It's not a hunting rifle. It was designed with no other purpose than killing many people quickly.
I think that's what sickens me most, is watching the worst elements of our society, which in theory should be much better then this, nakedly taking partisan swipes and weeping crocodile tears at the expense of fifty dead trans and gay people.
Refrain from gun control debates here, please
Not the place
we even have a whole thread for that already
You're gonna get a very bad reaction bringing this in here right now.
So please, just don't.
It makes perfect sense.
People are raised from birth to believe their entire existence is owed to a supreme being they cannot communicate with or understand and then they're told that the supreme being will punish them if they allow others to act against a set of arbitrary rules AND THEN they live in desperation or unhappiness and wonder why their supreme being has abandoned them AND THEN they see two men kissing.
Forget the gun control debate. Right now I'm sick up to my eyeballs with religious indoctrination.
As a non-muslim, one of the many levels of how fucked this situation is going to be is that Muslims are absolutely going to get blamed for this. The Oompa Loompa running for office is gonna use this. I am sorry you're going to have to deal with that. Because as a gay person I know that the last thing I want is for an LGBT tragedy to be used to further more hatred.
Other initial thoughts after just learning about this a short while ago...
I keep hearing "The worst domestic shooting in history"... and I find I don't agree. Certainly the most prolific and of course it's reprehensible... but Sandy Hook still haunts me more. Maybe as I absorb this new information my opinion will change, but those were little kids.
On a related note, I don't have high hopes this will lead to any sort of significant legislation on assault weapons, for exactly the same reason as above. If they weren't willing to do something when a bunch of kids in school were killed... I don't see people suddenly having a change of heart over them killing LGBT folks. We've made progress in this country over the last decade but certainly not enough that we're more loved than children.
I feel like this is something a lot of people will need today.
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
I'm not sure
he was a licensed security guard, that much has been confirmed
Then again, with his choice of targets...
what a disaster.
Sorry I hadn't seen that as I was posting, I've pretty much said all I have on the topic anyway.
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
Man, we have no idea what his religious upbringing was like. I'm sure that much like with Christians around the world, there's a wide spectrum on 'whether or not gays are actually humans' teachings.
Please don't call out an entire religion based on this guy's actions.
Then again this line of thought only comes up with Muslims.