Obama reprises his role as comforter-in-chief, repeats call for tighter control of weapons

ORLANDO, Fla. - President Barack Obama met family members of victims of the Pulse nightclub massacre Thursday – traveling to Orlando where he and Vice President Joe Biden placed bouquets of 49 white roses, one for each victim, on a memorial – and the president repeated his call for tighter controls on high-powered firearms.

“We can’t anticipate or catch every single deranged person who may wish to do harm,” Obama told reporters after his session with the victims’ families. “But we can do something about the amount of damage they can do.”

Family members who pleaded with him to do more to stop mass shootings “don’t care about the politics, and neither do I,” Obama said. “This debate needs to change.”

Unlike some of the president’s previous trips for memorial services after mass shootings, this one was decidedly low-key: no address to a large crowd, but simply what White House officials called “a few personal reflections” to the media after spending time with mourners.

Nevertheless, a crowd began gathering at downtown Orlando’s Amway Center hours before the president’s arrival.

The White House worked closely with Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer to coordinate the visit, spokesman Eric Schultz told reporters traveling with the president, and did not want to overburden local law enforcement officials strained by the attacks.

The quick visit, though, was a way for Obama and Biden to show that “Americans stand shoulder to shoulder” with the people of central Florida. “There’s no more tangible way to show support than by traveling to the city where this horrific incident occurred,” Schultz said.

The shooting has quickly become fodder for the presidential campaign, but Obama’s visit had a bipartisan note. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., joined Obama aboard Air Force One to travel to Orlando. And among those greeting Obama upon arrival was Republican Gov. Rick Scott.

Obama is a reluctant veteran of memorial services for victims of mass killings, yet no single one of those he’s presided over prepared him fully to mark the Orlando massacre, aides said.

The deadliest mass shooting in the country’s history, the attack stands distinct in the president’s experience not only for its scope and scale, but also for the complex web of issues it brought to the forefront – fear of terrorism and radicalism, worries about political fallout and the vulnerability of targeted communities.

They exemplified pluralism and unity, said one aide, ideals the president wanted to promote as more powerful than the extremism espoused by their killer.

Obama is mindful that he’ll be speaking to and about LGBT people and immigrants, two communities who may feel their equality and liberty are under fire right now.

“Signs of support and comfort from the president of the United States should be a powerful affirmation for” them, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Wednesday.

Air Force One landed in Orlando at 12:45 p.m. Obama’s motorcade took him to the Amway Center. As it pulled up, a group of people entered the building, some with their arms full of flowers.

Among those who turned out at Amway Center, some said they had been invited to meet the president. Officials said the event was by invitation only, closed to the public.

Several of the victims and families were recognizable: Angel Santiago, 32, shot in the legs during the attack, arrived in an ambulance from Florida Hospital and wheeled in on a gurney. Santiago had spoken Tuesday during a briefing at the hospital about the hours he and other hostages spent trapped in a bathroom at the nightclub with the gunman.

Alex Honorato arrived with a group of women dressed in black. His son, Alex Honorato, 30, a father of three, was killed in the shooting. Others arrived wearing rainbow ribbons and clutching framed photos.

“I feel so deeply for this community,” said Angela Holley, 51, an Orlando paralegal who wore a rainbow bracelet as she watched mourners file in from a nearby street corner.

Holley said a coworker who was on the patio of Pulse nightclub when the shooting erupted narrowly escaped. Holley recalled seeing her after the attack and sharing a hug of relief. Three other friends of hers lost loved ones in the attack.

“This is my community,” said Holley, who is straight and came to see Obama and survivors. “I come in solidarity with him and with them. Hopefully, we can get to the bottom of this, and this will never happen again.”

For Obama, the gathering reprised memorials like those after the shootings in Tucson, Ariz., in 2011 and Newtown, Conn., in 2012. Obama met with almost every immediate family member who lost a child at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, and the experience fueled his ultimately doomed effort to pass gun-control legislation in Congress in the months afterward.

Aides were also arranging for Obama to meet with survivors. Because many expected to attend are not fluent English speakers, organizers were trying to determine how to make sure everyone present can understand.

Although Obama sees Orlando as a singular moment, he approaches it with the heavy baggage of the mass shootings that have come before it during his presidency.

From Tucson to Newtown to Charleston, S.C., Obama has evolved in his approach to comforting victims’ relatives, as well as Americans overall, after each new act of violence.

Early on, he sought legislative change to limit the guns used in many of the killings, but without success. By the time an angry young man killed South Carolina parishioners who had offered to pray with him – a year ago Friday – Obama appeared to have resigned himself to the fact that, with little time left in office and a Republican-led Congress blocking his efforts, he is limited in what he can do beyond lead the country in grief, and, in that case, in song: He and an audience of thousands sang “Amazing Grace.”

In Orlando, Obama looked solace in the stories of the people who were gunned down early Sunday in the Pulse nightclub, a popular gathering place for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and for Latinos.

The 29-year-old Orlando gunman, a Queens native named Omar Mateen, had spoken in the past of his hatred for gay people, racial minorities and Jews. In the midst of the massacre at the nightclub he called a 911 operator and announced his loyalty to Islamic State, though investigators are still probing whether he’d had contact with the extremist group.

Among the dead are many young people whose lives are still vivid on social media. Stanley Almodovar, 23, was a pharmacy technician who posted a video of himself singing and laughing on his way to the Pulse nightclub. Amanda Alvear, 25, posted videos to her Snapchat account of herself dancing to the music on the crowded Pulse dance floor.

The joy turns to heartbreak in her final video. It captures the moment the shots rang out – and it provides chilling evidence of how fast Mateen was able to mow people down. Besides Mateen, 49 were killed and 53 wounded.