House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi downplayed the role Islamic terrorism may have played in the shooting death of 49 people in Orlando on Sunday, instead emphasizing the killer’s anti-LGBT sentiment.
“Clearly a hate crime,” Pelosi, D-Calif., said, describing Omar Mateen’s attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., which also injured 53 people. “How much was a hate crime and how much was inspired by or justified by ISIS or whatever, I don’t know. But, we do know it was a hate crime and we know it was horrible.”
Mateen pledged allegiance to the Islamic State during the attack and appears to have been in contact with Islamic terrorists, which has prompted Republicans to call for President Obama to step up the fight against the Islamic State.
Democrats are focused on gun control.
Pelosi said Congress should vote on a bill that would block people on a terror watch list from purchasing firearms.
“This will prevent more gun violence than almost anything you can do,” Pelosi said.
Pelosi said the legislation should be broadened to include a provision that would require the FBI to be notified if someone formerly on the watch list purchases a gun. Such a law would have tipped off federal agents to Mateen, who had once been on the list but was removed before he bought two guns, including a semiautomatic rifle used in the nightclub.
