Ask White House to explain President’s snub to Pulse victims

June 18 2019 – President Trump arrives in Orlando, and to a throng of followers he announces he will run for the presidency again in 2020.  Not far away, others have been commemorating the tragic shooting at Pulse nightclub three years ago.  The president failed to even acknowledge the anniversary when he addressed his Orlando crowd.

Buzz Feed quoted one of those present at the Pulse gathering:  “We just had our anniversary, we just had a memorial mourning the fact that we lost all those lives. He barely even acknowledged the fact that we lost those 49 lives,” said Rocky Rivera. “It wracked the country, it wracked the globe. We’ve been thinking about it ever since … We’ve been scared, and ironically the people we’re scared of support him.”

President Trump CSpan image from Orlando Weekly

Trump claimed at the time that if one person present had a gun and knew how to use it, the Pulse tragedy would not have been so extensive.

In fact, the automatic weapon used on the 300-strong crowd did its devastating work in a matter of seconds.

 

 

The Orlando Weekly has called Trump out on his ignorance in this article,  reminding him how quickly the event happened and that a trained, gun-carrying person at the scene could not have reacted fast enough.  The paper said: “…OPD estimated from listening to 911 calls that Mateen fired about 200 rounds in less than five minutes and only stopped to reload.”

ACTION:

Write to president and give him the following message, personalized to your liking:

You visited Orlando to announce your bid for the 2020 presidential race, while at the same time mourners and supporters gathered at the scene of Orlando’s horrific Pulse shooting to commemorate the third anniversary of this American tragedy.  I call on you to rectify this huge insult by making a comment on Pulse massacre now – and to work to stop the sale of automatic and semi-automatic weapons.  You can and must take action to stop further wholly avoidable tragedies.

At the time of the massacre, you said that one person with a gun could have stopped or mitigated the casualties at Pulse.  Now that we know that the killer had an weapon that fired 200 rounds in under five minutes, and that there was a trained, competent gun-carrier at the event, I call on you to put the blame squarely where it belongs:  on the NRA and all those who want automatic and semi-automatic weapons to be available for sale, and I expect you to make a statement and take action accordingly.

I also call on you to reflect on the hatred the gunman had for the LGBTQ community, and how hate speech around him helped fuel his actions; I call on you to recognise the gravity and influence of your office, and to curb your own homophobic speech and actions.  There is no reason a LGBTQ member of the armed forces should experience anything but your thanks and the country’s thanks.

Finally, I expect you to take seriously the increase in gun-related deaths in 2018 in the US  – nearly 40,000 people according to the New York Times.  I expect you to take this epidemic seriously, and to end your ties to the National Rifle Association, now forever tainted with accepting funds from Russia:  something of course the American president must never be linked to.

I await your answer both by return and in your next address to the nation.

The White House  
Phone: (202) 456 1111
Email: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/ (form)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/WhiteHouse/posts/?ref=page_internal 
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/POTUS 

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