“Smith says she can’t stand living with the fear that has grown since Pulse, the suspicion that anyone who could wish her harm has the firepower to do so. ‘Now I have to worry about the woman in the grocery store with her purse open, or the guy reaching for his wallet,’ she says. ‘We don’t have to live in a society where every encounter is a lethal one.'” – Nadine Smith, co-founder and CEO of Equality Florida, quoted in People of the Year: The Heroes of Pulse [via advocate.com]
Society is only dangerous cause we got guns? You’d be happier if the nut job killed you with a hardware store machete? Hammer? Or ran you over with their Hummer?
Ban Hummers.
No need. Madonna already reneged.
Well Played, Sir.
Before the Pulse shooting, the worst mass murder against the LGBT community was the the arson attack of the Upstairs Lounge in 1973, which killed 34 people, but I guess it doesn’t really count since the perpetrator used a can of gasoline instead of a gun….
And still, to this day, the largest firearms mass murder, was with a Ruger Mini Ranch version, bought legally in Europe, by a person who underwent multiple background checks, mental health certification, demonstration of proficiency and a need, an effective 6 month waiting period. The firearm he used is still legal to buy in Norway, and is legal in Canada, where it does not even need to be registered.
Gun control does not prevent mass shootings at all
Wanna drive my Hummer do ya. It’ll go up, over, thru, around anything but a gas station. ; )~
And people like her routinely accuse gun owners of being paranoid?
Exactly.
“Well isn’t that the ‘black calling the kettle pot.'” – Archie Bunker
The Pulse massacre seemed to demonstrate a dangerous way to live (unarmed and congregating in a likely target) rather than heroism IMO.
Being homosexual in and of itself is dangerous, from a health standpoint. Actually living the homosexual lifestyle is even more so, cutting one’s life expectancy by perhaps as much as twenty years.
Terrorists and hanging out at night in crowded venues don’t help, but those are but tiny contributing factors in relation to that whole homosexuality thing they have going on.
What about people wearing sunglasses!!! Never know if they’re looking at you and getting ready to attack! Maybe she needs more tinfoil.
That’s called paranoia, Ms. Smith. See your Primary Care Physician for an appropriate specialist referral.
Uh… there were no heroes at the Pulse. In order to be a hero you have to have both the will and the tools to meet the challenge you’re confronted with. The men with the tools waited outside for two hours, I don’t think they had the will to be heroes.
Anyway, nothing has changed other than her situational awareness. Ah to be oblivious again!
Preach brother! In “the society we live in” it seems like victims are the heroes, being a victim is the cool thing to do nowadays.
There will always be victims. It’s the heroes that are optional.
Let me bring some common sense to her paranoia. Almost all people are more committed to their own well being than another person’s way of life. I don’t care about someone being gay, of different race or religion. I care about my family, finances and being happy. Hurting another person simply because I don’t like them would not cross my mind when my freedom to be happy, healthy, and financially sound is at stake. But I guess my way of life is why some minority of people are upset. The problem is I don’t care enough.
Here in the real world Ms Smith, you may find yourself the target of violence for a variety of reasons, many of which have nothing to do with you personally, simply time and place. That reality existed thousands of years before the terrorist attack on the Pulse nightclub, and will continue for as long as humans roam the earth. You have two choices, Ms Smith, make yourself a harder target or roll the dice and hope for the best.
On the opposite side of that coin, if humans ever stop behaving in a dominant manner (as these fools wish), then we will quickly find ourselves no longer the dominant species.
“…Now I have to worry”
That is right. YOU have to worry. I don’t know where you got the idea that the rest of us have to do something about your worry. In fact, that is rather arrogant of you to expect others to do something because of you being worried. That makes you sound rather intolerant of others when you expect them to change to conform to your expectations, makes you sound kind of like a bigot.
She doesn’t have to worry, she chooses to.
I can’t even reach for my wallet in a grocery store without upsetting this mentally unbalanced woman.
And everyone with a jacket could possibly be concealing a suicide vest.
Terrorists have more than one way to kill a crap load of people in a confined space. Its not guns, its Muslims.
“We don’t have to live in a society where every encounter is a lethal one.”
Ummm… We don’t. Where the hell do you live?
As a motorcycle rider and instructor, I operate under the assumption that everyone around me wants to kill me. I don’t fear it, I just keep that thought in mind as I SIPDE.
“Welcome to the party pal” – John McClain
YOU’RE JOINING THE FIGHT ON THE WRONG SIDE AND YOU’RE GOING TO LOOSE FOR ALL PEOPLE ATTRIBUTABLE TO YOU.
Life hasn’t changed sweetheart. Not one iota. It could’ve been any other day, and the muslim POS perp was gonna bomb or burn you down anyway.
Wake the F up.
Plus, “Equality Florida” ??? What the F is that? Are you taking federal $$$ to fight our Constitution? Are you taking foreign $$$ to fight our Constitution.
Don’t give me that “equal” sh_t because YOU AIN’T EQUAL, AND I CAN TELL BECAUSE YOU TOLD ME SO. IT’S ON YOUR BUMPER STICKERS AND T-SHIRTS AND FUNDRAISING LEAFLETS.
AND. . . because you cannot force me to equate myself with your POS broke-a_ _ sh_t. FU stupid.
She is correct, thats why we must stop the lawless open borders that Obama promulgated to keep these foreign killers off our soil.
This suspicion has been true ever since the Chinese invented gunpowder over a millennium ago. Welcome to reality – a reality that is true for every single person.
Now, the next step is to realize that efforts to constrain the decisions and actions of law-abiding people do nothing to constrain those people among us who wish harm upon others.
“Heroes”? Hmmm, well, I’d say survivors, definitely.
“By the dictionary, Noun, plural heroes; for 5 also heros.
1.
a person noted for courageous acts or nobility of character:
He became a local hero when he saved the drowning child.”
I think of a hero as one that risks, or gives their life, to protect another.
Cowering, begging for life, or running away while others are being murdered by a devout Muslim; then afterward, blaming and trying to ban an inanimate object for the massacre, is not my definition of “heroes”.
More like just a bunch of traumatized people that need counseling to finally accept that their world view is functionally a mental dis-order that promotes helplessness, powerlessness, and a victim mentality. This, in the end, causes people to be filled with self-loathing and self-hatred.
So instead of accepting this opportunity to become truly empowered, with a real sense of self-esteem based upon being truly effective in their lives; they are simply reinforcing their mental dis-order, and embracing their victim status as a badge of honor.
Speaking of paranoia, I have revised my standard answer to the question why I carry a firearm.
I don’t carry because the odds of me being attacked is high. I carry because the odds of an attacker finding an armed potential victim is too low. I’m doing my civic duty to change those odds.
Get a gun, defend yourself.
That is actually the best prescription. The true way to happiness is through action. She is an activist, which is a misnomer. Activists are not that physically active. Activists complain and recruit others to complain. That is not action. Activism never brings happiness because they aren’t the ones who take action to solve a problem.
You might say there are two kinds of people in this world. Activists and Actionists. An activist complains about litter in the neighborhood. The actionists volunteers to clean it up. The activist votes for a minimum wage. The actionist works hard to earn a good wage. Action speaks louder than words. It also makes you more happy.
You are on fire today, Michael! Two quite excellent comments, IMHO.
That’s called PTSD. Therapy can help.
Someday people might figure out that there is nothing that can be done to protect them from their own neuroses.
Yeah, I know, I’m only kidding myself.
So who were the hero’s of the Pulse? Anyone? I assume everyone is trying to kill me. I’m not paranoid-just prepared. And didn’t some high school kid just stab 5 fellow classmates this week? FloriDUH indeed…
Wow, so many excellent comments on this thread! (no sarcasm) I tip my hat to everyone who posted such accurate and insightful comments.
heroes? more like sheep to the slaughter.
Nadine Smith’s comment paraphased:
“Now I have to worry that every adult encounter in public could be lethal.”
Guess what snowflake? Every adult and teen encounter in public always has and always will have the potential to be a lethal encounter.
Rather than whining about it, prepare yourself to respond effectively to such potential lethal encounters.
And what is effective preparation? Learn about pre-assault cues, possess an effective self-defense tool, and commit yourself to immediately deploy that self-defense tool if someone escalates from pre-assault cues to an attack.
That’s it. Learn to recognize looming attacks and have the mindset to respond.
(Note that having the mindset to respond encompasses having an effective self-defense tool as well as the will/commitment to use it in righteous self-defense!)
Got slapped with reality didn’t cha?
Almost slapped back to reality. She’s forgetting that someone could just as easily take a can of corn off the shelf and use it to cause her harm.
This woman should be evaluated for metal illness. For real.
Are we certain that’s a woman?
Xanax was invented for a reason…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfGYSHy1jQs
I hate to break it to you, Sunshine, but if someone really wants you dead they can just push you off of a sidewalk into oncoming traffic.
Sweet dreams! /;-)
Her irrational, borderline mentally unstable fear reminds me of people’s statements that say unvaccinated, healthy kids should not be allowed in schools, or even public.
Heroes are people who do remarkable things for the greater good despite great adversity.
“We don’t have to live in a society where every encounter is a lethal one.”
And fortunately for most folks, we don’t.
Girl, you already lived in that society — the only difference is now you’re aware of it. And the only question is whether you’re going to whine for someone else to take care of you or act to take care of yourself.
“Mothers Little Helper”, i love this song. From their “Flowers” album. I have this album sans bar code of course.
I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired, hehehe.
Mrs. Smith, Nadine, if life is so much scarier NOW because of the aftermath of Pulse, and all the other mass-shooting attacks that the tv people have talked about in the 24/7 spin cycle, then if you feel up to it; imagine that the world you live in RIGHT NOW exists in the aftermath of the deaths of over 140,000 people worldwide, by conservative estimates.
I hope the term, conservative hasn’t triggered you into walking out into oncoming traffic Nadine as your free expression of protest to the winning by the Republican party of the executive, and soon to be judicial and of course legislative branches of government?
No? Good, then also imagine that the world you live in EVERY SINGLE DAY exists in the aftermath of unnumbered deaths by fire, flood, famine, drought, physical attack by motor vehicle, by animals, by gravity, by fists, feet, and force multipliers, rapes, assaults, the crying of hypocritical left-wing psyhco… oops, I mean, you get what I’m driving at Nadine?
The world WE live in is hard as steel and stone, so please for the sake of your own fragile psyche, remember the words of Al Swerengen, “Pain or damage don’t end the world. Or despair, or (efffing) beatings. The world ends when you’re dead. Until then, you got more punishment in store. Stand it like a man… and give some back.” Truer word have rarely been spoken Nadine, take them to heart hmm?
140,000 deaths EVERY DAY, forgot to put that in; sorry.
Your fears do not trump our rights.
l say this again, when the People are finally disarmed the killing will only have just begun. Look to history, it happens EVERY time.
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