My first thought: “I hope the shooter’s not Muslim”

As I was preparing to go to bed, I checked my phone and saw a Flipboard notification that mentioned Las Vegas and a number of people dead. I nonchalantly swiped the notification away, but as soon as I did, it wasn’t the thought “Oh, there was a shooting”, but “I hope the shooter’s not Muslim” that turned me to Google to find out more.

If you haven’t heard yet, there was a shooting at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas in the wee hours this morning, at the Route 91 Harvest, a 3-day country music festival. Writing this at 3:45am Monday morning, CNN is reporting at least 50 dead and 200 wounded 😢.

Initially, I didn’t find a name, but judging from the companion they named (an Asian woman) and the venue where the shooting occurred, my guess was that it was potentially politically motivated, left v. right, more than religiously motivated.

Then looking at Google again right now, it looks like they released the gunman’s name as Stephen Paddock, a 64-year old white male.

This is a tragedy through and through, but how much will hate continue to infiltrate our society? Who will be more motivated to act now? Will someone take revenge? Will this political/religious divide literally tear our country apart? This is now the worst mass shooting in our history…I go to bed now with a heavy heart. I wonder what world I’ll wake up to now.

But man, listening to that footage, of the machine gun-like fire…I don’t know…what do we do about guns here in America? :|