On the fifth anniversary of the mass shooting at Pulse nightclub that left 49 people dead, President Joe Biden vowed to make the site a national memorial.
The former nightclub never reopened after the shooting and currently serves as an impromptu memorial. Biden called the space “hallowed ground” in a statement shared on June 12.
A bill to declare the space a memorial passed the Senate and headed for Biden’s desk last week. That bill was pushed by Central Florida representatives including Val Demings and Darren Soto.
[content-3]Biden also marked the anniversary on Twitter, indicating that he plans to move forward with legislation that would make it more difficult to purchase weapons without first passing a background check.
The anniversary was marked both at the site and throughout the city of Orlando, with remembrances both official and otherwise.
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This article appears in Jun 9-15, 2021.