News

Leading gay rights group joins gun control fight

by Jesse Byrnes - 06/17/16 3:07 PM ET

The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBT advocacy group, announced Friday that it was joining the fight for stricter gun control measures following last weekend’s mass shooting in Orlando.

The group’s adoption of gun control as an issue, approved by its board on Thursday night, comes in the wake of the nation’s bloodiest mass shooting, which left 49 dead and 53 injured.

{mosads}”Forty-nine members of our community were murdered on Sunday morning because of a toxic combination of two things: a deranged, unstable individual who had been conditioned to hate LGBTQ people, and easy access to military-style guns. It is imperative that we address both issues in order to mitigate safety risk to our community,” campaign President Chad Griffin said in a statement.

In Congress, the Orlando massacre has renewed focus on gun control legislation. The Senate on Monday is expected to vote on measures from both Democrats and Republicans.

The campaign’s resolution states that the group supports “common-sense gun safety reform,” mentioning “limiting access to assault-style rifles, expanding background checks, and limiting the ability for suspected terrorists and those with a history of domestic abuse to access guns.”

The group on Friday turned its headquarters in Washington into a memorial for the victims of the Orlando shooting, installing in its windows images of the 49 individuals gunned down at the gay nightclub Pulse and displaying the text “We are Orlando” at the bottom of the eight-story tribute.

An FBI official this week characterized the shooting as a hate crime and act of terrorism, with the New York-born U.S. citizen behind the attack reportedly claiming allegiance to Islamic militants.