President Biden condemned gun violence and attacks on the LGBTQ community following Saturday’s mass shooting at Club Q in Colorado on Sunday.
The president acknowledged that “no motive” had yet been determined in the shooting, but nevertheless connected the attack to the mass shooting at Pulse nightclub in Florida six years ago. Police say 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich killed at least five people and injured 18 more in his assault on the nightclub.
“While no motive in this attack is yet clear, we know that the LGBTQI+ community has been subjected to horrific hate violence in recent years,” Biden wrote. “Gun violence continues to have a devastating and particular impact on LGBTQI+ communities across our nation and threats of violence are increasing. We saw it six years ago in Orlando, when our nation suffered the deadliest attack affecting the LGBTQI+ community in American history.”
“We must address the public health epidemic of gun violence in all of its forms. Earlier this year, I signed the most significant gun safety law in nearly three decades, in addition to taking other historic actions. But we must do more. We need to enact an assault weapons ban to get weapons of war off America’s streets,” he added.
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President Joe Biden speaks during an event in Wilmington, Delaware. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Biden’s statement came just after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also addressed the attack, calling it a “senseless slaughter of five beautiful souls.”
“The attack on Club Q, which fell on the eve of Transgender Day of Remembrance, is despicable — further shattering the sense of safety of LGBTQ Americans across the country,” she wrote in a statement. “While Democrats have taken important steps to combat gun violence this Congress, this deadly attack is a challenge to our conscience and a reminder that we must keep fighting to do more.”
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Police respond to a shooting at the Club Q nightclub in Colorado Springs. (@TreyRuffy/Twitter)
Authorities say no motive has been determined for Saturday’s shooting so far, and they are still investigating whether it was a hate crime. Aldrich is currently in custody and receiving treatment for injuries at a local hospital in Colorado Springs.
Colorado Springs Police Chief Adrian Vasquez says at least two “heroic” patrons were able to subdue Aldrich just before police arrived.
Police say they received the first call regarding the attack at 11:56 p.m. on Saturday, and the first officer was dispatched to the scene at 11:57. The officer arrived to the scene at 12:02 a.m. and took the already-subdued suspect into custody before calling for more support.
Police at the scene of the Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs. (@TreyRuffy/Twitter)
The investigation is in its early stages, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation is on the scene to assist. Many have concluded the shooting was motivated by anti-LGBTQ bias, including the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD).
“You can draw a straight line from the false and vile rhetoric about LGBTQ people spread by extremists and amplified across social media, to the nearly 300 anti-LGBTQ bills introduced this year, to the dozens of attacks on our community like this one,” GLAAD’s president and CEO, Sarah Kate Ellis, said in a statement to the Denver Post.
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Club Q described the incident as a “hate attack” in a statement, bud did not respond to a request for clarification from Fox News Digital.
