Five dead. Six wounded.
It was one family vacation, personal getaway or business trip that ended in deadly consequences.
It was two seconds where anything could have went wrong, but in the end… it was this.
It was three security guards who tried their best to help, four behavioral hints towards this result, and five deaths that could have been prevented. Six innocent people will deal with hospital bills and emotional scars today on January 7th 2017, with eight news stations constantly reporting the news. This, of course, all due to a mentally unstable man with a nine millimeter semi-automatic hand gun in an airport.
Out of ten thousand people in the building who came close to this reality, eleven families have been changed drastically, and forever.
Five dead. Six wounded.
And yet, a whole entire world has been impacted by this same event.
Recently there was a mass shooting at a Florida airport, killing five people and wounding six. This is the seventh mass shooting of 2017, and only after seven days. Incredibly alarming, this just shows how much of a serious problem we are dealing with. Many of these cases aren’t majorly highlighted on the news, and therefore go unannounced to many, but in reality happen almost every day.
News such as this that reaches the public news doesn’t just extend to the families affected directly, but extend to those of the whole world. I always feel extreme anger and sadness when mass shootings occur, and sympathize with both those who witness it, and are injured physically and mentally. This is a horrible reality… but a reality at that. Mass shootings can happen at any time, in any place, to anyone and that is not okay. We need to take more drastic measures to prevent crimes like this and be aware of what people are doing to prevent it. In this Florida shooting’s case, the man who committed the crime (who’s name I don’t want to say or even type down) went to the police with a gun in his car and told them he was having terroristic thoughts. After they took him in for assessment in a mental health facility, they let him go.
Not to mention, they also gave him his gun back.
The results of his test have not been given, but it has been revealed that he encountered police five other times: for things such as domestic violence and an allegation of strangulation. It appears to be highly likely that he struggled with mental problems and for that I would say that what he did was not his fault. This does not in any way make his crime any less severe and he should surely be punished for it. What makes me upset is the fact that more could have been done, but it was not and now we are here.
However, in times like this, people miles apart come together and share words of encouragement. People who have never met stand with those who have nearly lost or have lost a loved one, and pray for their recovery.
In times like this humanity draws strength from each other and become one.
To me, that’s what is most important.
Dear Elissa,
This piece in incredible. I am so glad that you chose to write about this, not only have I heard your amazing voice on the subject, it was also really refreshing in its unforgiving truth and bluntness.
Your style in this piece really captured me, especially in the introduction. Everything was direct and to the point, yet it ended with something that I was not expecting. Like I said before, this was why it was so refreshing. I often feel like, with more and more events like this occurring globally, people miss the opportunities we, as a global community, are given. We sympathize, we rant on and on about such subjects, yet no one does anything about it, no one recognizes the true impact that these events have on us in Canada, unless we witnessed the event ourselves. In the past, no one could even fathom anyone committing a major act of terror in Canada, we believed ourselves to be untouchable. But it can and does happen.
Thank you for writing this, I agree with all that you have written and really appreciate its message. In a world with increasing global acts of terror (not that they haven’t happened in the past, they are just not as publicized), it is because of people like you who see the opportunity in these events that we are able to combat negative forces.
– Shyla
Elissa,
The thing that I loved the most about this piece was the numbers in the beginning, and how clever that was to weave them into the narrative like that. What was even more clever was that they were all related and relevant. I’m not sure I’ve ever read anything quite like it. And, I loved it.
I also thought that this was an important topic that did need to be addressed, so I commend you for being brave enough to do so. I think that your message was well-thought out an eloquent, and I liked that you put a spin on it at the end, by stating that it is events like these that bring us, as humans, together.
Something that you could improve would be when you repeat “5 dead. 6 wounded.” for the second time, to italicize it like you did when you first said it. I think it is such a powerful part of this narrative, and the italics really emphasize that severity.
All in all, this was such a great piece.
-Hope