New Zealand Massacre

Bailey Dickerson

Imagine that you found a reason for life. Imagine that there are many people who have that same reason as you. Imagine having a safe haven with all those like minded people. A place of love and harmony.

 

Imagine a monster enters the safe haven and kills you with no remorse. Imagine being hunted by a monster who attacks you for your beliefs.

 

This exact thing happened Friday, March 15.

 

A 29 year old Australian terrorist walked into a Mosque and started shooting and killing people all while streaming it to Facebook. When he ran out of ammunition in his gun, he walked back to his car and grabbed another.

 

After he was done in the first mosque he got in his car and drove to a second mosque and repeated the process. He took 50 people from the earth.

 

While he was on his way to get another gun, a father of four named Abdul Aziz Wahabzadah grabbed a credit card reader and threw it at the Terrorist to try to scare him away. The Terrorist dropped his gun and picked up another and tried to shoot Mr. Wahabzadah but couldn’t. Mr. Wahabzadah picked up the Terrorist’s first gun and tried to shoot but it was out of ammunition, so he threw it as the Terrorist drove away.

 

But by the time the attack was done 50 people were dead and more than a dozen wounded. Some of the wounded didn’t survive.

 

Before committing the atrocity, the terrorist posted a 75 page manifesto for his radical friends who all wished him the best. An anonymous source described the manifesto and video by saying “the manifesto and video serve nothing more than to show how edgy he is along with showing the ‘power’ of people just like him. He is a white nordic supremacist who calls for the defeat of the ‘invaders’ who currently ‘ruin’ society.”  The Terrorist states his reason for the attack was to make the left abolish the second amendment and force the right to take action. “He hopes for a fracture in the U.S. ‘along cultural and racial lines’.” the Terrorist also cited people like Candice Owens and Dylann Roof as inspiration.

“In conclusion he is a radical maniac influenced by those who have already committed acts such as these and have nothing more in their sight than to disrupt the world so they may finally feel special in their miserable and puny lives.”

 

Two mosques were attacked by a terrorist which begs the question, are people safe in their place of worship?

“Yeah I feel… safe” explained Junior Abdul Olaoye “because most of the time Mosques have security and it was kind just one act of extremism.”

 

Abdul compared it to school shooting saying “people still move on but at the same time it does bring real concerns…” Some students seemed more frightened than Abdul by the attack.

 

Malaika Junaid said “We have security guards and everything there but, the mosque is so big that you can’t really watch everywhere so it’s kind of hard for us.”

 

After the tragedy New Zealand decided to take action to prevent any more attacks like this, by putting a ban on “military-style assault weapons” which includes “semi automatic rifles and shotguns that are capable of being used with detachable magazines” according to Juliet Williams from associated press.

 

When asked if it was the right thing to do Junior Abdul sided with New Zealand saying “That just mean that less tragedies like this happen” but not everyone agreed with Abdul. Some offered an alternative to a full ban.

 

“How about stricter gun laws” Said Junior Isa “such as background and mental health checks and not just one multiple and renew your license to hold a gun”

 

No matter how you choose to view the situation, one thing is for sure. A family is going to have an empty seat at the dinner table. A monster still gets to continue living while families find a way to pay for the funerals and find a way to support the rest of their remaining members.