Evil does not exist within a gun. It exists in the hearts and minds of those who pull the trigger for the purposes of evil. Recently, Orlando, Florida has been the center of a target at a shooting range.

Jun. 10, 2016, singer Christina Grimmie was shot three times by a St. Petersburg man — Kevin James Loibl — while engaging in a meet and greet after her concert in Orlando. Taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center in critical condition, she passed away in the early hours of Jun. 11. Loibl went on to take his own life. There were no known connections between the two except for the fact that Loibl was obsessed with the young Christian singer, and found in the social media of Loibl, the twisted gunman possessed a strong hatred for Christians. Grimmie happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, killed for her faith.

Jun. 12, only one day after Grimmie died, all hell broke loose at Pulse nightclub, also located in Orlando. At  2 a.m., American-born Omar Mateen, walked into the gay nightclub with an AR-15 and killed fifty people, with at least an additional fifty-three wounded. During the attack, Mateen called 911 pledging his allegiance to ISIS. Being on the FBI’s radar previously in 2013 and 2014, Orlando police made the decision to kill him.

Defined as an act of domestic terrorism, seen also as an act of hate by an Islamic fighter, CNN revealed as to why Mateen went on a rampage. “Mateen’s parents, who are from Afghanistan, said he’d expressed outrage after seeing two men kiss in Miami, but they didn’t consider him particularly religious and didn’t know of any connection he had to ISIS,” CNN reported. Whether or not Mateen actually had ties to ISIS, it is still unclear whether the group planned or knew of the attack beforehand. No responsibilities have been claimed by the group so far. President Barack Obama considers this the worst mass murder in U.S. history.

Gay, Straight, Bisexual, Lesbian, Black, White, Disabled…human is the common, binding factor each trait shares. Every human being is entitled to their opinion, and is born with free will. Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Atheist — once again; human. An attack on any American — regardless of race, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation is an attack on the whole community and on the values of equality, dignity and pride in which define America.

Between Christina Grimmie and those lost at Pulse nightclub, gun violence and hatred is what it boils down to. These days, people hate others because they were raised one way, or their morals somewhere else. Seemingly that homosexuality is a sin in most religions, how is killing 50 people not? Since Dec. 14, 2012, at the time of the Sandy Hook shooting, there have been a grand total of 998 mass shootings.

The United States of America is the land of the free, because of the brave. The constitution was put in place for a reason. The amendments protect the individuals in the land of the free, but those rights cannot be overused or mishandled. They will be forced to be stripped from man and forever be gone. Raining bullets from a killing machine, evil takes control in the heart and soul of the aching man.