On Wednesday, Dec. 2, at roughly 11 a.m. three people armed with long guns stormed the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California. The Inland Regional Center houses several different facilities: federal, county, and medical.

The suspects fled three hours later, leaving 14 people killed and 17 more people injured. Ten of those people were critically injured.  However, hundreds of other people were evacuated, none of which appeared injured.

The suspects were identified as Tashfeen Malik and her husband, Syed Rizwan Farook, a worker at the facility.  Their motives were unknown; however, evidence seems to lean towards terrorist intentions. The shooters were detained, and were pronounced dead at the scene a few miles away from the shooting site in a black Ford Expedition SUV.

This is the roughly 354th recorded shooting this year, as stated in the Dallas News. Obama addressed the BBC news stating, “We have a pattern of mass shootings in this country that has no parallel anywhere in the world.”

As the terror in the Middle East continues to grow, suspicion towards Muslims and Middle Easterns grow. And the treatment of the people becomes more and more callous.

In response, President Obama addressed the public on Dec. 6, stating, “Muslim- Americans are our friends. They are our neighbors. They are our sports heroes. And yes they are the men and women who serve in our military.”

Those words can be prominent to all of us who may or may not harbor suspicion against those innocent people who were swept up into these recent acts of terrors.