Bidens call owners of Club Q, site of Colorado mass shooting

President Biden and first lady Jill Biden called the owners of Club Q, the gay nightclub in Colorado Springs where a gunman opened fire on Saturday night, to express their condolences in the wake of the tragedy.

The Bidens offered their support to Nic Grzecka and Matthew Haynes as well as the LGBTQ community, according to the White House, after five people died and 25 others were injured in the alleged hate attack.

Grzecka and Haynes, who have called the shooting a "senseless attack on our community" and a hate crime, are both co-owners of the nightclub in Colorado, which opened more than 20 years ago.

Club Q, which is closed until further notice, is a popular spot and considered a safe space for the LGBTQ community in the Colorado Springs area.

The gunman who opened fire at the club with an assault rifle has been charged with five counts of first-degree murder and five counts of bias-motivated crime, typically referred to as a hate crime, but police are still trying to identify a motive.

Biden this week also called Richard Fierro, the Army veteran who is credited with taking down the gunman.

The Colorado attack came less than a week after a shooting at the University of Virginia, which left three students dead, and was followed by a mass shooting at a Walmart in Chesapeake, Va., which left seven people dead, including the gunman.

Biden on Thursday told reporters he was going to try to pass a federal assault weapons ban in the lame duck session before the next Congress forms, although the legislation would likely be doomed because of Republican opposition.