Flags In Florida To Remain At Half-Staff Through Thursday

As investigations into the worst mass shooting in American history continue, President Barack Obama and Florida Gov. Rick Scott have both ordered flags to be flown at half-mast through sunset Thursday, June 16.

Obama issued a proclamation Sunday ordering the lowering of American flags at the White House, and “upon all public buildings and ground, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its territories and possessions.”

Scott announced his declaration “in honor and remembrance of the victims of the terrorist act in Orlando,” Sunday, as well.

Omar Mateen, 29, was the lone shooter in Sunday’s massacre that began to unfold around 2 a.m. at the Pulse Orlando Night Club & Ultra Lounge. Police say Mateen placed a 911 call Sunday morning pledging his allegiance to the Islamic State. 

State and local officials are calling the shooting an act of terrorism.

“This is clearly an act of terrorism,” Gov. Rick Scott said during a Sunday afternoon press conference. “It’s sickening (and) it should make every American angry.”

See Also:

• Latest: Officials Begin Identifying 50 People Killed In Orlando Mass Shooting
• Rumors Of Multiple Shooters In Orlando Massacre Untrue: Cops
• Orlando Shooter Omar Mateen: What We Know

President Barack Obama also classified Omar Mateen's actions as terrorism and issued a fresh call for action on new gun control measures.

"This massacre is therefore a further reminder of how easy it is for someone to get their hands on a weapon that lets them shoot people in a school, in a house of worship, or in a movie theater or in a nightclub," Obama said. "And we have to decide if that's the kind of country we want to be. To actively do nothing is a decision as well."

Sunday's death toll far surpassed an attack at Virginia Tech in 2007, where 33 were killed, as well as high-profile attacks at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in 2013, where 28 died, and a mass shooting that killed 14 in San Bernardino, Calif., last December.

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