On the Orlando Night Club Shooting
​​​​By UP SESC | June 15, 2016

The past week has had the world bear witness to various acts of violence. There were ten mass shootings between June 5 and June 12 in the United States of America. Within a span of a week, there have been 61 reported casualties, over 70 more injured and countless family members scarred.

What worsens this is to hear of news that some of these shootings have been targeted at specific sectors of society. On June 12, 50 men at a gay bar in Orlando, Florida were shot dead, with countless others also injured. These events have shown that up until now our world suffers from discrimination towards various sectors of society, with the LGBT community being the target of last week’s act of terror. Having since claimed affiliation with ISIS, the shooter has also shown that hate crimes towards particular sectors don’t stop at gender or preference but sadly also encompass ethnicity and religion. 

Various media outlets have turned a close eye towards the events in the United States of America, however we hope that we do not forget of the same struggle our country continues to face. Discrimination towards particular groups of society is still prevalent whilst victims of violence and hate crimes here in the country continue to go unheard and ignored. Shootings and killing continue to be tolerated, with us turning a blind eye towards the pleas for help of our countrymen. Beyond this, the lack of concrete policies to mitigate and stop tragic events like these are a cause for concern amongst us citizens. 

The UP School of Economics Student Council condemns any and all forms of violence. Beyond the condemnation of these acts, we also call for the practice of good governance here in the country to ensure that the policies and decisions made in the near future do not serve as means for others to continue spreading fear and committing violence and atrocities towards any member of society. We hope that the recent events will open our eyes to the problem that must be remedied, that we are pushed to do everything we can to ensure that these acts of violence and discrimination no longer plague us in the future.

Sources:
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/06/12/us/orlando-nightclub-shooting/
http://www.gunviolencearchive.org/reports/mass-shooting