ORLANDO, Fla. | President Obama again played the role as the nation’s chief comforter after a mass shooting Thursday, meeting with victims’ families and trying to turn the conversation to gun control rather than the failure of his counterterrorism strategy to prevent the attack.
Away from TV cameras in a basketball arena, the president consoled relatives and survivors of the shooting by an Islamic State-inspired gunman that left 49 dead and 53 wounded. It was the eighth time of his presidency that he has mourned in person with a community reeling from a mass shooting, increasingly using the killings to push for gun laws such as a ban on assault-style weapons and tighter background checks on purchases.
Facing cameras afterward, Mr. Obama said the families pleaded with him to act. He said he intends to honor their wishes and called on lawmakers from across the political spectrum to join him.
“Today, once again, as has been true too many times before, I held and hugged grieving family members and parents, and they asked, ’Why does this keep happening?’ And they pleaded that we do more to stop the carnage. They don’t care about the politics. Neither do I,” he said.
While acknowledging the terrorist leanings that gunman Omar Mateen professed as he went on his bloody rampage, Mr. Obama said the reason for the carnage was easy access to “extraordinarily powerful weapons.”
“Those who defend the easy accessibility of assault weapons should meet these families,” he said with Vice President Joseph R. Biden at his side.
They laid bouquets at a makeshift memorial at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, adjacent to City Hall.
Congress is preparing to debate competing gun proposals next week, but it’s unclear whether the shooting has moved the needle enough to break gridlock that doomed similar proposals in December, after the attack in San Bernardino, California.
Richard Benedetto, a former White House correspondent and an adjunct professor of journalism at American University, said while it matters for a president to share a community’s grief, Mr. Obama’s increasing calls for gun control aren’t serving a unifying purpose nationally.
“It is important to the community where tragedy strikes, and for the nation at large, to see the president there sharing in the grief in a personal way,” Mr. Benedetto said. “It is a symbol that shows we are unified and all in this together.
However, President Obama missed the chance to unify us on Day One when he quickly turned the tragedy into a debate over gun control, and then, in the days that followed, attacked those who oppose him. Therefore, rather than bring us together, he has helped to further divide us.”
Democratic Party strategist Jim Manley said of the president’s gesture Thursday, “It is important for a president in times of tragedy to do what he can to bring the country together to show unity and resolve.”
The White House is using the Orlando shooting, in which gays were targeted, to spur its continued efforts for more gun regulations.
White House spokesman Eric Schultz said the U.S. has about 30,000 gun deaths each year, nearly two-thirds of which are suicides. More than 20,000 Americans younger than 18 and more than 500 law enforcement officials have been killed by firearms in the past decade, he said.
“Maybe those realities will finally sink in to Republicans and they will support some of the common-sense gun safety legislation that the president has been championing for years,” Mr. Schultz said.
Republican lawmakers say the president is missing the point and that the nation needs to fight Islamist terrorism more effectively.
“We’ve seen more than a dozen terrorist attacks on American soil in the last seven years,” said House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, Louisiana Republican. “Unfortunately, some people around this town want to take advantage of that as an opportunity to talk about gun control. Taking away rights of law-abiding citizens … instead of focusing on the problem. [Terrorists] don’t just use guns; they use pressure cookers, they use pipe bombs, they use axes, they use the internet to recruit Americans. It’s time we put a sharper focus on solving this problem and addressing the fact that Americans are being radicalized and carrying out terrorist attacks here in the United States. It’s going to continue until there is a sharper focus.”
Mr. Obama made a gesture toward bipartisanship on the trip, bringing with him on Air Force One Sen. Marco Rubio, Florida Republican, and Rep. Corrine Brown, Florida Democrat.
The president met with law enforcement officials to thank them for their response to the shooting and spoke with the owners and staff who were working Saturday night at Pulse, the nightclub where the shooting took place. Two employees of the club were among those killed.
While Mr. Obama was in Florida, Congress was ramping up the debate on gun control.
Mr. Schultz said the White House favors a proposal by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat, to close a loophole that allows people on the government’s terrorism watch list to purchase firearms.
Mr. Obama is “acutely aware of the political realities,” Mr. Schultz said. But in light of the slaughter in Orlando, he said, “We hope that changes.”
The shooting rampage has raised more questions about the administration’s handling of the fight against the Islamic State and other extremist groups.
A report Thursday from the Center for a New American Security said the administration’s effort against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria “has not been as successful as it must be.”
“It relies too heavily on ground forces that are predominantly Kurdish and Shia, and has not yet built sufficient Sunni forces to retake and, more importantly, hold ISIS territory,” the report said, using a synonym for the Islamist group. “U.S. military support has also been limited in a number of unnecessary ways. A lack of embedded combat advisers supporting partners on the front lines, hesitation to deploy more troops, and inadequate delegation of authority have all slowed progress.”
Mr. Obama said attacking the Islamic State overseas won’t solve threats at home. He said the San Bernardino and Orlando attacks were homegrown.
“If you have lone-wolf attacks like this, hatched in the minds of a disturbed person, then we’re going to have to take different kinds of steps in order to prevent something like this from happening,” he said.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.