US President Joe Biden has signed a bill that declares the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando Florida a US National Memorial site.

The President was joined at The White House by first lady Jill Biden, survivors of the shooting, members of the Florida congressional delegation, and members of congressional equality caucus.

“Just over five years ago, the Pulse nightclub, a place of acceptance and joy, became a place of unspeakable pain and loss, and we’ll never fully recover, but we’ll remember,” President Biden said. “And we have to, what we’re going to do is, what the members of Congress here is enshrine in law, as a consequence of that law, enshrine in perpetuity a literal monument to a loss that occurred there.”

After signing the bill President Biden said he hoped that no President would ever have to sign a bill for a monument such as the Pulse Nightclub.

A lone gunman killed 49 people, and wounded 53 others in a mass shooting that occurred in the early hours of Saturday June 5th 2016. The gay club was hosting a Latin night when the 29-year-old gunman entered the venue and began shooting people. The situation developed into a stand off between police and the offender as he held people hostage in the club.  After several hours police entered the building and the gunman was killed in an exchange of fire.

The mass shooting was the deadliest in US history until the 2017 shooting in Las Vegas that saw 60 people killed and over 400 injured.

OIP Staff

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