Iowa Rep. Steve King has been
speaking out against LGBT issues, especially in the fight over same-sex marriage for years, but on Wednesday he said that it was "tragic" that the victims of Sunday's shootings at Pulse nightclub in Orlando were targeted because of their sexuality.
"I think it was clear that gays were targeted in Orlando and it does matter and it's tragic that they were targeted because of their sexual orientation," the conservative Iowa Republican told CNN's Chris Cuomo on the
"New Day" program.
Just last year, before the
Supreme Court's ruling on same-sex marriage, King told
Newsmax TV's Steve Malzberg that families do better when there is a mother and father married, not two men or two women, and that legalizing same-sex marriage would "transform our civilization for a long time to come."
Meanwhile, King told Cuomo it would be hard to draw a line on whether a person who had been under investigation by the FBI, like Orlando shooter Omar Mateen, should be banned from buying a gun.
"They interviewed [Mateen] two or three times and they decided to close the investigation," said King. "What do you do to draw the line? I'm not willing to take the guns out of the hands of everyone who fits that category because we are denying them their right to defend themselves."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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