President Obama, speaking publicly after meeting privately with the loved ones of the Pulse nightclub shooting victims in Orlando today, called for stronger USA gun laws and for an end to anti-LGBT discrimination and violence, both here and around the world.
Advertisement
“We’re going to have to do more to prevent these kinds of events from occurring”.
He says the families’ grief is “beyond description”. “Some are still fighting for their lives”, Obama said of those wounded in attack on Orlando’s Pulse nightclub.
The Pulse, he said, was a haven for LGBT people, a place where they could be themselves, and “Sunday morning that sanctuary was violated in the worst way possible”.
Obama called the Orlando rampage an act of terror, but he also forcefully declared it an “act of hate”.
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) – President Barack Obama says the families of the 49 people who were killed in the Orlando nightclub shooting “could be our families” and “are part of the American family”.
After the private meetings, President Obama and Vice President Biden visited the sprawling memorial at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.
“Those who were killed and injured here were gunned down by a single killer with a powerful assault weapon”, Obama said”.
Republicans, who now hold a 54-person majority in the 100-seat Senate, have blocked a number of Democratic-backed gun control measures over the years, saying they infringe on Americans’ constitutional right to bear arms.
Obama meant to focus on making the visit a moment of solidarity. But CIA Director John Brennan said Thursday that the agency has found no connection between the gunman and any foreign terrorist organization.
Senator John McCain went as far as to suggest that Obama’s policies in the Middle East were directly responsible for the shooting.
The president’s call for rejecting bigotry against gays and lesbians is complicated by the possibility that the gunman, Omar Mateen, may have been wrestling with his own sexuality.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Obama would deal with the ambiguity in the Florida shooting by focusing on the victims. The FBI has been looking into reports that Mateen frequented the nightspot and reached out to men on gay dating apps. Mayor Teresa Jacobs, left, accompanied by Orlando, Fla. Vice President Joe Biden and Sen.
In the aftermath of the shooting, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has accused Obama of putting USA enemies ahead of Americans.
In Congress, the attack has spurred yet 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.
He said he is glad that the Senate is considering some gun control measures, which include stopping people on the terrorist watch list from buying guns and requiring background checks even when someone purchases a gun online or at a gun show instead of in a store.
Meanwhile, Republican White House candidate Donald Trump has said he will discuss with the National Rifle Association “not allowing people on the terrorist watch list, or the no-fly list, to buy guns”.
Advertisement
Hennessey reported from Washington.
