Orlando Nightclub Shooting: Obama Orders Flags at Half-Staff

President Obama has issued a proclamation following the deadly mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando where at least 50 people were killed and 53 others hospitalized in the worse mass shooting in U.S. history. 

Obama the flag of the United States to be flown at half-staff at the White House and, "upon all public buildings and grounds, 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 until sunset, June 16, 2016."

Flags at all U.S. embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations have also been ordered to fly at half-staff. 

A resigned President Obama addressed the nation Sunday afternoon saying the massacre was a reminder of how easy it is for someone to get their hands on a weapon. 

"And we have to decide if that’s the kind of country we want to be.  And to actively do nothing is a decision as well," Obama said. 

Obama stressed that no act of terror or hate would change the values of Americans. 

"We need to demonstrate that we are defined more -- as a country -- by the way they lived their lives than by the hate of the man who took them from us," Obama said, speaking of the victims. 

Patch File Photo