Biden on deadly shooting at LGBTQ nightclub: ‘We cannot and must not tolerate hate’

President Biden on Sunday said the country “cannot and must not tolerate hate” and called for action on “the public health epidemic of gun violence” after a gunman killed five people and wounded 18 others at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colo. 

“Places that are supposed to be safe spaces of acceptance and celebration should never be turned into places of terror and violence. Yet it happens far too often. We must drive out the inequities that contribute to violence against LGBTQI+ people. We cannot and must not tolerate hate,” Biden said in a statement. 

A motive is not yet clear, but Biden likened the Club Q shooting to the Pulse LGBTQ nightclub shooting in Orlando, Fla. in 2016, when 49 people were killed in what Biden called “the deadliest attack affecting the LGBTQI+ community in American history.” 

“We continue to see it in the epidemic of violence and murder against transgender women – especially transgender women of color. And tragically, we saw it last night in this devastating attack by a gunman wielding a long rifle at an LGBTQI+ nightclub in Colorado Springs,” Biden added.

Police in Colorado Springs said Sunday that the shooting suspect was injured in the attack and is being treated.

“Today, yet another community in America has been torn apart by gun violence. More families left with an empty chair at the table and hole in their lives that cannot be filled. When will we decide we’ve had enough? We must address the public health epidemic of gun violence in all of its forms,” Biden said. 

According to the non-profit database Gun Violence Archive, nearly 40,000 people have died of gun violence in the U.S. this year alone, and the country has experienced 601 mass shootings, or incidents that kill or injure at least four people, not including the shooter.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said earlier this month that Biden would “continue to do everything in his power” to address the “epidemic that will not end with thoughts and prayers alone.”

The president in his Sunday statement highlighted his work on the bipartisan gun safety law, which he signed into law this year after the deadly mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, N.Y., but called for further action.

“We need to enact an assault weapons ban to get weapons of war off America’s streets,” Biden said.