Somber times in tourist haven after nightclub massacre

Motorists honked their support for those attending, including many who held signs or wore T-shirts reading: “Orlando Strong”, an echo of the “Boston Strong” slogan after that city was hit by a deadly bombing attack in 2013. He noted that the site of the shooting was more than a nightclub, calling it a place where people came to raise awareness, speak their minds and advocate for their civil rights.

Mr Obama yesterday consoled families of the victims of Sunday’s massacre at Pulse nightclub, in yet another visit to the scene of a mass shooting.

“We’re working with our law enforcement partners to find out everything that we can about what happened at the Pulse nightclub”, Lee Bentley, the U.S. Attorney for Florida’s middle district said on Wednesday. In a rare symbolic show of bipartisanship, Mr Obama arrived with Republican one-time presidential hopeful Marco Rubio and was greeted on the tarmac by Republican Florida governor Rick Scott and Vice-President Joe Biden.

At the end of the visit, Mr. Obama delivered a short speech in which he addressed and honored the grief of the survivors and family members that he’d met, extending empathy while also displaying a clear frustration with the political machine’s inability to enact effective gun reform. The NRA said it will be “happy” to meet with him. “It’s going to take more than just our military”, Obama said, an apparent reference to proposals for stricter gun-control laws.

The gunman, identified by authorities as Omar Mateen of Port St. Lucie, Florida, was found dead inside the nightclub after a shootout with the police. He has also ordered flags to half-staff more often than any other president in history, per USA Today.

However, no formal deal between the parties for votes was announced, and it was unclear when and how the Senate would proceed with the votes, which would be amendments to an appropriations bill funding the Commerce and Justice departments.

But the president used the opportunity to call for greater gun control, noting that both the Orlando attacks and San Bernardino shootings in December were “lone-wolf” assaults committed by “home-grown” terrorists living in the United States.

“We make it very easy for individuals who are troubled or disturbed or want to engage in violent acts to get very powerful weapons very quickly”, Obama told reporters in the Oval Office after meeting with his national security advisers at the White House.

April 2014: Obama took part in a memorial at Fort Hood, Texas, after three soldiers were killed in a shooting at the Army post.

July 2012: After the shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., where 12 people were killed, Obama met with victims’ families and local and state officials. He said during the day afterward that the crime – where 49 people were killed and more than 50 others injured – was being investigated as a terror attack. Obama meant to focus on making the visit a moment of solidarity.

After meeting with the families, Obama and Biden went to the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, where they placed bouquets of 49 white roses – one for each of the people who died in the attack – at a makeshift memorial there.