Politics & Government

Obama Orders Half-Staff Flags in Wake of 'Senseless' Colorado Shooting

The president issued a proclamation Friday ordering that flags in the U.S. be lowered to half-staff through part of next week.

to half-staff in honor of the victims of Friday's shooting in a Colorado movie theater.

The move intends to pay respect to the 71 wounded and dozen killed at midnight Friday, when police say 24-year-old James Holmes entered a theater in suburban Denver as it was debuting "The Dark Knight Rises" and opened fire.

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"At first he was just a silhouette, taken by some in the audience for a stunt that was part of one of the summer's most highly anticipated films," according to a Huffington Post story. "But then, authorities said, he threw gas canisters that filled the packed ... theater with smoke, and, in the confusing haze between Hollywood fantasy and terrifying reality, opened fire as people screamed and dove for cover."

Officials are calling the shooting one of the worst—if not the worst—in U.S. History.

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Obama issued the following proclamation in the wake of the massacre:

As a mark of respect for the victims of the senseless acts of violence perpetrated on July 20, 2012, in Aurora, Colorado, by the authority vested in me as President of the United States by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby order that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions until sunset, July 25, 2012.

I also direct that the flag shall be flown at half-staff for the same length of time at all United States embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twentieth day of July, in the year of our Lord two thousand twelve, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-seventh.

—Barack Obama


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