Reactions to Sunday’s Orlando shooting by two openly gay members of the Los Angeles City Council are making the rounds this week, with spectators describing them as passionate, moving and, at times, rife with anger.
“They’ve got another thing coming,” Councilman Mitch O’Farrell said of the National Rifle Association in remarks Tuesday, in which he pressed the need for greater restrictions on firearms. He described the massacre as “this generation’s Stonewall,” and vowed to do his part to enact significant changes in U.S. policy.
City Councilmember Mike Bonin also gave an emotional speech centered on gun control.
“Forty-nine people would be alive today if this nation didn’t have such a ridiculous obsession with making guns available to people,” Bonin said. He refused to take time for a moment of silence, saying he had no silence left.
Sunday’s terrorist attack at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida has reignited a national discussion over individuals’ ease of access to firearms. President Obama, Democratic members of congress and California lawmakers have all called for stricter gun regulations in response.
Watch the councilmen’s speeches here.