Obama made his remarks in downtown Orlando during an afternoon visit to express condolences to this grieving city. “But we can stop some tragedies”, he argued “We can save some lives”.
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“We’re just here to spread love and joy and try to put an end to all the hate”, said Ezekiel Davis – or, as he’s known to some, Sister Anesthesia Beaverhausen.
The Republican-controlled Congress has steadfastly refused to pass any gun legislation, saying to do so would infringe on gun owners’ constitutional rights.
Last October, as he visited the victims of the OR shooting, Obama confessed that “somehow this has become routine”.
The President and Vice President also had the chance to meet with local law enforcement officials to thank them for their work in responding to the attack.
“The last two terrorist attacks on our soil – Orlando and San Bernardino – were homegrown”, Mr Obama said.
Earnest said the president “wants to show [that] Americans stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of Orlando”.
The president later told reporters the families talked to him about their loved ones and their grief over young lives taken. “In fact, they are our families – they’re part of the American family. our hearts are broken too”. That has further escalated the debate following the shooting, which struck on a series of charged political and cultural flash-points of Obama-era America.
After several private chats, President Obama pronounced a speech in which he tried to address the underlying causes of the mass shooting.
On his two terms, President Obama has visited at least nine mass shooting scenes, 3 of which occurred in 2015.
The President said that since the last two terror attacks on USA soil were “homegrown” and committed by “deranged individuals”, it would take “more than just our military” to prevent further massacres. He said Obama meant to tell residents “that they’re not alone, even as they endure what surely have been several dark nights”.
His staff said that this would also be an emotional visit. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), a former Republican presidential candidate, and Rep. Corrine Brown, a Central Florida Democrat.
Her friend, Amanda Alvear, was shot dead in the club.
“In a million years, I would have never thought that something like this would happen to me”, she said, fighting back tears.
Florida news website TCPalm reported that Mateen, who worked as a security guard, was frequently suspended while he was in junior high and high school, and was passed to the next grade despite poor academic performance.
The investigation and makeshift memorials in Orlando have seemed a world away from Washington and the presidential campaign, where initial horror has quickly given way to a vicious political brawl.
In the aftermath of the shooting, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has accused Obama of putting USA enemies ahead of Americans.
“It’s a good time for us to reflect on how we treat each other”, Obama said. In a rare bout of public anger, Obama denounced both Trump and the GOP leaders who are still supporting Trump.
Obama called on the need for stricter gun control laws and said he met with families of the dead who begged him to take action to stop the mass shootings.
Democratic senator Chris Murphy, whose state of CT shouldered the killing of 20 children in Newtown in 2012, undertook a roughly 15-hour filibuster that lasted into the early hours of yesterday.
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But the familiar divisions on gun control continued apace in Washington on Thursday, with Democratic lawmakers pushing for a new ban on assault weapons and stricter background checks for gun purchases as Republicans braced in opposition and recast the focus on terrorism, not guns. Yet in an unexpected twist, Trump said he planned to meet with the National Rifle Association “about not allowing people on the terrorist watch list, or the no-fly list, to buy guns”.
