A majority of the victims have been identified. They all have faces, they were all important to somebody, many were just at the beginning of realizing their potential.
I’ve been reading/seeing dumbass opinion pieces about how they could have been saved if they had a gun- the security guard who happened to be an off duty cop did. It didn’t really help against the assault rifle but he tried. Some say they should have fought back, alluding to the notion of the passive, limp wrist faggot. How are you supposed to fight back against a terrorist who may have a bomb, shooting up a whole room? We now have several examples of mass shootings but this is the first I’ve heard where the victims are being blamed for not fighting back.
We do have many examples of their bravery. There’s the report of the victim that took a bullet in the back, trying to save his boyfriend by shoving him out of the door first. There’s the groups and groups of people that carried their friends and strangers out of the club at the risk of getting shot, sacrificing a speedy exit. There’s numerous stories of people like Eddie Justice, terrified at impending death- texting his mother that he loved her.
Yet, there’s this subtext that these people let themselves be killed while trying not to mention the truth:
They were hunted by an American citizen who hated gay people and was able to easily get his hands on an assault weapon. The fact that he’s a self radicalized Muslim is secondary. No walls or bans would have kept him out because he was rightly here. Did his behavior raise alarms? Yes, but that didn’t matter because of how easy it is to get a gun in America.
I really hope these people didn’t die in vain.
