US President Barack Obama receives a t-shirt from Mayor of Orlando Buddy Dyer (C) as he arrives in Orlando to meet with families of victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting, in Florida, US, June 16, 2016.
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“If you have lone wolf attacks like this, hatched in the minds of a disturbed person, then we’re going to have to take different steps in order to prevent something like this from happening”, Obama said.
Obama, who has visited mass shooting victims’ families in towns from San Bernardino, California, to Newtown, Connecticut, since he has been president, laid flowers at a memorial for the victims of the attack on the Pulse nightclub.
After leaving the Amway Center, President Obama and Vice-President Biden, moved to the Dr. Phillips Performing Arts Center, where they layed down 49 white roses to remember the victims. Instead, Obama was to spend much of his time in private consoling families of the 49 victims, and meeting with doctors, paramedics and other first responders.
Brittany Woodrough came to honor her close friend, 19-year-old Jason Benjamin Josaphat.
“So the responsibility for it lies with President Barack Obama and his failed policies”, McCain said. The Senate Homeland Security Committee’s chairman sent a letter to Facebook asking for help with messages denouncing the “filthy ways of the west” left on Facebook accounts believed to be associated with Mateen before and during the attack.
Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, said the chamber would most likely vote on four gun control measures on Monday.
The president warned more attacks will follow if something isn’t done.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is walking back comments that President Barack Obama is “directly responsible” for the attack in Orlando, Fla., earlier this week.
Understanding of the shooting has been muddied by witnesses who say Mateen was a regular at the gay club and used gay dating apps.
“If there was ever a moment for all of us to reflect and reaffirm our most basic beliefs that everybody counts and everybody has dignity, now’s the time”, the president said. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, also a Republican, traveled with Obama from Washington, along with Rep. Corrine Brown, a Democrat who represents parts of the city.
Hey, at least he didn’t call on Obama to resign like the party’s presumptive nominee.
In Congress, the attack has spurred another bitter fight over gun control, exposing deep frustration among supporters of stricter gun laws that no level of mass casualty seems to be enough to force gun control opponents to reconsider.
Democratic Sen. 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 Thursday. A Democratic bill would keep people on a government terrorism watch list or other suspected terrorists from buying guns.
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An argument President Obama disagreed with Thursday.
