Colorado Springs - The dance floor was alive, people bouncing to DJ T-Beatz's pulsing tunes, a Saturday night at Colorado Springs' trusty spot for gay people and their friends. For 21 years, Club Q, tucked behind a Subway sandwich shop on a suburban strip six miles from downtown, had been more than a nightclub - it was a community center, a place where families of all ages gathered for brunch on Sundays to watch drag performers play Madonna and Cher, Beyoncé and Cardi B.
Moments before midnight Mountain time, a young man wearing a military-style jacket and carrying a long, AR-15-style rifle and a handgun walked into the club, where the bouncers knew many of the patrons and were known to give everyone else a hard look.
