Pulse Nightclub Named National Memorial On Shooting Anniversary

ORLANDO, FL — On the fifth anniversary of the shooting that killed dozens at Pulse Nightclub, an LGBTQ club in Orlando, President Joe Biden said Saturday that he’ll sign a bill naming the site a national memorial.

This deadly attack on the LGBTQ community, which happened June 12, 2016, killed 49 people and injured 53 and, at the time, was the deadliest mass shooting by a single gunman in American history.

“Within minutes, the Pulse nightclub that had long been a place of acceptance and joy turned into a place of unspeakable pain and loss,” President Biden said in a statement released by the White House. “Forty-nine people (who) were there celebrating Latin night were murdered, even more injured, and countless others scarred forever — the victims were family members, partners and friends, veterans and students, young, Black, Asian and Latino — our fellow Americans.”

Calling Pulse’s former site on South Orange Avenue in Orlando “hallowed ground,” the president pledged to sign a bill designating it a national memorial “in the coming days.”

Biden was serving as vice president at the time of the shooting and said he’s kept in touch survivors of the shooting and family of victims since then.

Since the attack, they’ve “turned their pain into purpose and…remind us that we must do more than remember victims of gun violence and all of the survivors, family members, and friends left behind; we must act,” he said.

More must be done “to address the public health epidemic of gun violence in all of its forms – mass shootings and daily acts of gun violence that don’t make national headlines,” Biden said.

He called for the closure of “loopholes that allow gun buyers to bypass background checks,” the ban of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, and the creation of “extreme risk protection orders.”

The nation must also acknowledge the impact of gun violence on LGBTQ+ communities, Biden added. “We must drive out hate and inequities that contribute to the epidemic of violence and murder against transgender woman — especially transgender women of color."