Obama says terror war can’t stop ‘lone wolves’
President again urges limits on assault rifles in visit with families of Orlando victims
ORLANDO, FLA.— U.S. President Barack Obama said Thursday that a military campaign against terrorism abroad won’t be enough to prevent “lone wolf” attacks much like Sunday’s nightclub shooting in Orlando, as he offered condolences and support to families of the victims.
Obama once again called for legislation to limit the availability of assault rifles, and made a point to note that the last two acts of terrorism on U.S. soil were not orchestrated by a foreign power, but carried out by “deranged individuals, warped by the hateful things they’ve seen on the Internet.”
“We will not be able to stop every tragedy. We can’t wipe away hatred and evil from every heart in this world. But we can stop some tragedies. We can save some lives. We can reduce the impact of a terrorist attack, if we’re smart,” Obama said after a day spent meeting with the victims’ grieving families. “And, if we don’t act, we will keep seeing more massacres like this, because we’ll be choosing to allow them to happen.”
Obama also called the attacks an “act of hate and an attack on the LGTBQ community.”
Obama travelled to Orlando as the city prepared to bury its first victims. The president and Vice-President Joe Biden spent hours meeting privately with survivors of the attack, victims’ relatives and police officers who responded to the scene on Sunday, when 49 people were killed.
The president said afterwards the families talked to him about their loved ones and their grief over young lives taken.
“Our hearts are broken, too,” Obama said he told them.
Even as families bury their loved ones, it’s unclear what led a 29-yearold Muslim born in New York to open fire in a gay nightclub early Sunday.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Obama would deal with the ambiguity in the Florida shooting by focusing on the victims.
“The president’s visit to Orlando has nothing to do with the individual who perpetrated this terrible attack,” Earnest said Wednesday.
The White House released few details in advance about Obama’s trip, which aides said was hurriedly ar- ranged.
But Obama planned to use the visit “to make clear that the country stands with the people of Orlando, stands with the LGBT community in Orlando, as they grieve for their loss,” Earnest said.
Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio flew with Obama, while the state’s Republican Governor Richard Scott was waiting on the tarmac to greet him when he arrived.
Pulse club shooting survivor Leydianna Puyarena told CNN that she appreciated the visit from Obama and Biden.
Her friend, Amanda Alvear, was shot dead in the club.
“In a million years, I would have never thought that something like this would happen to me,” she said, fighting back tears.
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.
The FBI has been looking into reports that Mateen frequented the nightspot and reached out to men on gay dating apps.
Back in Washington D.C., initial horror has quickly given way to a vicious political brawl.
Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump has expanded his call for temporarily barring foreign Muslims from entering the U.S., even though the attacker was an American.
Trump said the president “prioritizes” America’s enemies over its people.
In a rare bout of public anger, Obama denounced both Trump and the GOP leaders who support him.
Other Republican leaders also denounced Trump’s rhetoric.
In Congress, the attack has spurred another bitter fight over gun control.
Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy, whose state of Connecticut shouldered the killing of 20 children in Newtown in 2012, undertook a roughly 15-hour filibuster that lasted into the early hours of Thursday.
As he yielded the floor, Murphy said GOP leaders had committed to hold votes on expanded gun background checks and a ban on gun sales to suspected terrorists. Unexpectedly, Trump said he planned to meet with the National Rifle Association “about not allowing people on the terrorist watch list, or the no-fly list, to buy guns.”
For Obama, the trip to Orlando was an unwelcome return to one of the most difficult roles of a U.S. president: comforting the nation when few words can provide much comfort.
Obama has previously called his inability to enact stricter gun laws the biggest frustration of his presidency. With files from Peter Edwards and Robin Levinson King