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A gunman, identified as 29-year-old Omar Mateen, killed 49 people and injured 53 at Pulse, a popular gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida on Sunday, June 12. Mateen, too, was killed after police broke into the building, where he was holding 30 more people hostage for several hours, and shot him. The night is known as the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history.

Obama: 'An Attack On Any American ... Is An Attack On All Americans'

In what has become an all-too-familiar ritual in the United States, President Obama said the mass shooting in Orlando on Sunday morning was an "act of terror and an act of hate."

"This is a sobering reminder that attacks on any American ... is an attack on all of us," Obama said during remarks from the White House briefing room. "No act of hate or terror will ever change who we are as Americans."

Obama also said that this shooting is a reminder of "how easy it to let people get their hands on a weapon" that will let them open fire on a place like a school.

Obama has repeatedly called for stricter gun control after many of these shootings.

Today, he simply said: "We have to decide if that's the kind of country we want to be. To actively do nothing is a decision, too."

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Eyder Peralta is NPR's East Africa correspondent based in Nairobi, Kenya.