by Amanda Walker
When police revealed the number of dead had gone up from approximately 20 to 50, you could feel the shock.
This was more deadly than the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary and bigger than the Virginia Tech shooting of 2007 when 32 people were killed.
So many lives lost at the hands of one man.
Less than half a mile down the road from the Pulse nightclub, the police cordon gradually became a hub.
News crews from around the world set up microphones for local community leaders: pastors and politicians who tried to reflect the shock and deep sadness being felt by the victims' families and the wider community.
U.S. President Barack Obama speaks about the worst mass shooting in U.S. history that took place in Orlando, Florida, at the White House in Washington.
Play video "Orlando An Act Of 'Terror And Hate'"
Local police and the FBI told the world what they knew - as far as they can tell Omar Mateen acted alone.
He was known to the FBI after making inflammatory comments to his co workers in 2013.
He was interviewed twice but nothing came of it - his connections to terrorists were deemed insubstantial.
Moments before his rampage he called 911 and pledged allegiance to Islamic State.
The suggestion right now is that he was inspired - not directed - by the group.
So-called 'lone wolf' terrorists pose an incredibly tough challenge for US law enforcement.
People without connections to a cell or wider network don't leave an intelligence trail.
For individuals without ties to a terror network, getting hold of a weapon isn't difficult in the US.
As past shootings like the San Bernardino massacre have proved - extreme adherence to a hateful ideology combined with easy access to guns can be devastating.
Mass shootings can be just as deadly as a bomb and preparation for a gun attack is harder to trace.
Once again the debate over guns has been re-ignited.
Each shooting brings its own unique sense of outrage and disbelief: children massacred in an elementary school, churchgoers killed as they prayed, journalists shot dead live on air - the outcry is the same: surely this will prompt a change in the law?
But, as yet, it hasn't come close.
The mantra that bad guys with guns can only be defeated by more good guys with guns wins every time.
Even the unprecedented scale of this tragedy is unlikely to change that.
