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Barack Obama pays tribute to Orlando victims, calls for gun control

Forty-nine people were killed and 53 wounded when the 29-year-old Mateen attacked a gay nightclub on early Sunday.;

By :  sadhguru jaggi vasudev
Update: 2016-06-17 05:11 GMT
President Barack Obama travelled to grief-stricken Orlando on Thursday, meeting loved ones devastated by the shooting rampage and using his bully pulpit to demand that the Republican-controlled Congress pass gun control. (Photo: AP)
In a rare symbolic show of bipartisanship, Obama arrived with Republican one-time presidential hopeful Marco Rubio and was greeted on the tarmac by Republican Florida governor Rick Scott and Vice President Joe Biden.
Unfortunately our politics have conspired to make it as easy as possible for a terrorist or just a disturbed individual like those in Aurora and Newtown to buy extraordinarily powerful weapons and they can do so legally, Obama said.
Obama insisted the military would tackle the Islamic State group, al-Qaeda and other extremist groups in their hideouts, and intelligence services would work to disrupt such networks.
The Republican-controlled Congress has steadfastly refused to pass any gun legislation, saying to do so would infringe on the constitutional rights of gun owners.
Relatives of the victims don't care about the politics. And neither do I, Obama said.
After meeting the victims' families, Obama said our hearts are broken too and insisted the tone of the country's hyper-partisan debate on firearms needs to change.
Forty-nine people were killed and 53 wounded when the 29-year-old Mateen, a Muslim American of Afghan descent ran amok in a packed gay nightclub early Sunday, armed with a legally bought assault rifle.
Four days after the worst mass shooting in US history, Obama made a solemn pilgrimage to meet staff at the Pulse nightclub, emergency responders and some of the dozens of families shattered by gunman Omar Mateen.
Forty-nine people were killed and 53 wounded when the 29-year-old Mateen attacked a gay nightclub on early Sunday.

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