Photo: Barack Obama. Credit: Christopher Dilts/Obama for America.
“Today, once again, as has been true too many times before, I held and hugged grieving family members and parents and they asked, ‘Why does keep happening?’ And they pleaded that we do more to stop the carnage.”
—President Barack Obama, speaking in Orlando after meeting with families of the victims of Sunday’s mass shooting, CNN reports. He called their grief “beyond description,” saying that the community had been “shaken by an evil and hateful act.”
“Today, we are reminded of what is good,” Obama said, standing in front of a memorial to the victims. “That there is compassion and empathy and decency and most of all, there is love.”
But the president also reminded reporters of lax gun legislation that had allowed Omar Mateen to buy an assault rifle and handgun, despite being investigated twice by the FBI.
“Our politics have conspired to make it as easy as possible for a terrorist or even just a disturbed individual to buy extraordinarily powerful weapons, and they can do so legally,” Obama said.
He told reporters that it would take “more than just our military” to prevent such atrocities happening again, saying “we’re going to have to take different kinds of steps to prevent something like this from happening.
“We can’t wipe away hatred and evil from every heart in the world,” he continued. “But we can stop some tragedies. We can save some lives.”
The president also called the attack “an act of terrorism but also an act of hate – this was an attack on the LGBT community,” NPR reports.
“Hatred toward people because of sexual orientation, regardless of where it comes from, is a betrayal of what’s best in us,” he added.
Florida officials have placed signs warning against “defacing” a crosswalk outside the former Pulse nightclub and begun arresting protesters who chalk over it, just weeks after the state removed the rainbow Pride crosswalk that had commemorated victims of the 2016 massacre.
Framed as part of a broader national crackdown on traffic “distractions” led by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Orlando residents fought back by chalking -- and even repainting -- the bare crosswalk in rainbow colors.
“The Free State of Florida is now trying to ban *sidewalk chalking*,” wrote local investigative reporter Jason Garcia, who was present at the scene, on X.
Last week in Orlando, restaurateur Trina Gregory transformed 49 parking spots outside her eatery into canvases for local artists, who painted rainbow-colored murals in protest of a new federal mandate targeting street art. Under U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, the department has ordered states to remove rainbow crosswalks and other murals deemed "visual distractions" from public streets, a directive embraced by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Both DeSantis and Duffy argue that rainbow crosswalks -- the primary target of their mural crackdown -- amount to political messaging and are inappropriate for public roads.
Jason Collins, the first openly gay NBA player, is reportedly undergoing treatment for a brain tumor. Collins made headlines more than a decade ago when he came out publicly in a first-person essay for Sports Illustrated.
The 41-year-old former center earned All-American honors at Stanford before being drafted by the Houston Rockets in 2001. Over his 13-year career, he played for several NBA teams, including the New Jersey Nets, Minnesota Timberwolves, Atlanta Hawks, Boston Celtics, and Brooklyn Nets.
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