Orlando Gunman Texted Wife During Attack, Gun Shop Owner Says Warned FBI, Killer Wanted Body Armor

President Barack Obama said grieving family members in Orlando pleaded with him Thursday to take steps to prevent further gun carnage.

"Our politics have conspired to make it as easy as possible for a terrorist or even just a disturbed individual to buy extraordinarily powerful weapons, and they can do so legally," Obama said after meeting families of victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting that took place Sunday.
"Today, once again, as has been true too many times before, I held and hugged grieving family members and parents and they asked, 'Why does keep happening?' And they pleaded that we do more to stop the carnage. They don't care about the politics. Neither do I."
Obama arrived in Orlando Thursday for the grim task of consoling families after their loved ones were gunned down during another horrific U.S. shooting. After the meeting, he said that Americans must work together to prevent killers from committing further atrocities.

The Orlando shooter and his wife exchanged text messages during the Pulse nightclub rampage, a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation told CNN.

Around 4 a.m. on June 12, about two hours after he started the attack and while holed up in a bathroom, Omar Mateen texted his wife, Noor Salman, asking if she'd seen the news, the official said.
At one point, she responded with a text saying that she loved him. Salman also tried calling her husband several times during the standoff, a second law enforcement official said.
The timing of her calls came after reports of the attack had emerged, and apparently after she realized her husband might be responsible. He didn't answer, the official said.