A ban on assault weapons was demanded by President Biden in response to the mass shooting that occurred at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs on Saturday, which left five people dead and 25 others injured.
Biden compared the massacre at Club Q to the shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, six years prior, where a gunman killed 49 people and injured 53 others, despite noting the cause is still unknown.
“While no motive in this attack is yet clear, we know that the LGBTQI+ community has been subjected to horrific hate violence in recent years. Gun violence continues to have a devastating and particular impact on LGBTQI+ communities across our nation and threats of violence are increasing.”
He proceeded by saying that threats of violence are rising and that gun violence has a severe and unique impact on LGBTQI+ communities across our country. He pointed out that it happened in Orlando six years prior, when the country experienced the bloodiest attack on the LGBTQI+ community in American history.
INBOX: President Joe Biden statement on Colorado Springs LGBT club shooting, "We must drive out the inequities that contribute to violence against LGBTQI+ people. We cannot and must not tolerate hate." pic.twitter.com/2Jo1jiOErb
— Jason Lemon (@JasonLemon) November 20, 2022
According to President Biden, all kinds of gun violence are a public health epidemic that must be addressed.
The president added, “Earlier this year, I signed the most significant gun safety law in nearly three decades, in addition to taking other historic actions. But we must do more. We need to enact an assault weapons ban to get weapons of war off America’s streets.”
According to Colorado Springs Police Chief Adrian Vasquez, the suspected gunman, identified as 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich, used a semiautomatic rifle during the incident, which was put down after at least two brave clubgoers surrounded and engaged the suspect in combat.
Authorities are looking into whether the shooting in its entirety was a hate crime.
