Obama warns of more massacres after Orlando if lawmakers don't take action
President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday flew to Orlando and grieved with the victims and survivors of last weekend's attack, and the president warned Congress that more massacres could occur if lawmakers don't take action.
"These families could be our families. In fact, they are our family. They're part of the American family," Mr. Obama said in brief remarks at a podium with Biden by his side.
The two spent the day meeting privately with those affected by the shooting that occurred early Sunday morning at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, that left 49 people dead and 53 wounded.
"As you might imagine, their grief is beyond description. They told us about the joy that their loved ones had brought to their lives. They talked about their sons or daughters," Mr. Obama said. "So many young people in their twenties or thirties. So many students focused on the future."
The president vowed to defeat the Islamic State in Iraq in Syria (ISIS), which the shooter pledged allegiance to during the attack. The president warned that the threat of homegrown terrorism requires a multi-pronged response.
"It's going to take more than just our military. It's going to take more than just our intelligence teams," Mr. Obama said. "If you have lone-wolf attacks like this hatched in the mind of a disturbed person, then we're going to have to take different kinds of steps in order to prevent something like this from happening."
The president noted that the Senate will hold a series of votes next week on measures that would prevent people on the no-fly list from being able to buy guns.
"I've said this before: we will not be able to stop every tragedy," he said. "But we can stop some tragedies. We can save some lives...If we don't act, we will keep seeing more massacres like this."
Before his remarks, the president and vice president visited a memorial in Orlando where they laid down bouquets of white flowers.
The president has often traveled to places where there have been mass shootings, including Tucson in 2011, which was the shooting that injured then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Aurora and Newtown in 2012, Charleston last June, and Roseburg, Oregon, last October.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida and Rep. Corrine Brown of Jacksonville flew to Orlando on Air Force One with Mr. Obama. Rubio and the president were expected to have a conversation on the flight, said White House spokesman Eric Schultz, who said broadly of their talk that "this is a moment where Democrats and Republicans can come together and show that in the wake of a horrific attack, when one community is attacked in the United States of America, the United States of America stands together and united to help."