US President Donald Trump claimed that the 2016 Pulse massacre, where 49 people lost their lives, could have been prevented if someone at the club had been carrying a gun.

Trump made the comments on Wednesday, February 28, during a bipartisan meeting with senators at the White House, reports the Orlando Sentinal.

Arguing against gun free zones Trump said: “As an example, you take Pulse nightclub — if you had one person in that room that could carry a gun and knew how to use it, it wouldn’t have happened, or certainly not to the extent it did, where he was just in there shooting, and shooting and shooting and they were just defenseless.”

Trump saying if someone had been armed inside the Pulse nightclub, the shooting wouldn't have happened pic.twitter.com/dStGl7Vvdl

— Salvador Hernandez (@SalHernandez) February 28, 2018

Trump’s comments displayed his trademark lack of accuracy; Orlando police Officer Adam Gruler, who was armed, was working as off-duty security at the club during the attack.

Gruler exchanged gunfire with Mateen outside the club and didn’t enter the building, calling back-up instead.

On June 12, 2016, 29-year-old Omar Mateen killed 49 people and wounded 58 others in a mass shooting at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub. The attack was the deadliest single-gunman mass shooting in United States history until the 2017 Las Vegas shooting.

Mateen used an assault rifle similar to the one used by Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz.

On February 14, Cruz killed 17 and injured 14 students and staff at the Stoneman Douglas High School, sparking renewed debate about gun control.