It’s getting really tiring to return to my keyboard to type my daily blog entry, and have yet another story of violence and death upon which I can base my thoughts. The shooting at the Orlando nightclub is the epitome of what people fear. A crowded scene where people are gathered en masse, with little room to evacuate. Occurring in the middle of the night with loud music to mask the sound of the gunshots, many people didn’t even know there was something wrong before they were struck down.

The current death toll is 50, with another 52 wounded. Based on these numbers the gunman would have had to reload multiple times to unload that many bullets. This wasn’t a killing of simple rage, but of a cold and calculating individual who knew what he was doing, and how to achieve the most casualties. Many people might say we need to tighten gun laws, but from the initial accounts, this was an individual who would not have been stopped from purchasing a firearm, especially considering he was in the security business.

My heart aches for the LGBT community in Orlando. No one should need to live in fear because of their sexual orientations and identifications. People of good conscience can agree to disagree about issues, but violence is never a solution. There are early reports that this individual was affiliated with ISIS, and the coming days will show if those rumors are true. I hope that in the reaction to this tragedy that people do not get swept up in anger, but can somehow come to real solutions to try and avoid this type of attack from happening ever again.

May God’s peace be on all those who are hurting right now.