'No One Should Go Through This': 6 Years Later, the Pulse Nightclub Shooting Still Haunts Survivors, Families

It was last call at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida on June 12, 2016. About 320 people were still inside the trendy gay hotspot, ordering their last drinks and settling their tabs. It was Latin night, and the music was still playing throughout the club.

But within moments, the patrons would find themselves inside a nightmare that would change their lives forever.

At 2:02 a.m., a gunman parked a rental van next door to the club. He walked towards the building armed with two semi-automatic guns. Walking past a uniformed police officer working as a security guard, he entered the building and began shooting indiscriminately. Bullets rained down on the clubgoers.

At first, some of the patrons thought that the sound was just part of the music, but it soon became evident that the club was under attack. The police officer on the scene saw the gunman shoot two people and called for backup. Within minutes, the club was surrounded by officers as survivors - -many seriously injured -- poured out the exits.

The onslaught continued for hours. By the time the gunman was killed after 5 a.m., he had killed 49 people and injured another 58. It was the worst mass shooting in U.S. history until the 2017 Las Vegas Shooting. It remains the deadliest attack against LGBTQ+ people in U.S. History.

Six years later, victims' families and survivors are still grappling with their trauma -- and finding ways to heal.

"I didn't mean to cry today, but God gives mothers an unlimited supply of tears," Christine Leinonen, whose son, Christopher, died in the attack, said in a memorial service on Sunday. "My son and his partner, Juan, both died. Christopher died on the dance floor; and Juan made it to the hospital and died on the way to surgery. No one should have to go through this."

Jeff Xavier, a consultant on Queer as Folk, had spent the night out with friends and had almost gone home before deciding to get one last drink at Pulse. It was a decision that almost cost him his life.

"I was shot several times," Xavier tells PEOPLE. "I bled out on the floor. I actually died and was brought back. With many surgeries over the years, it's been a long, crazy road. Out of the 49 lost, I lost 6 of my friends."

Even first responders find themselves remembering the horror of that night.

"We were dispatched to a shooting, but I had no idea that it was so big," says Joe Ramirez, who was working as an EMT. "I thought 'oh, a club shooting. It must have been a fight in the parking lot.' But then I got there and it was like a war zone. Blood everywhere. People limping out of the building, and a swat team was right there."

"It's been 6 years, and I am still having nightmares about what I saw that night," he continues. "I can't imagine what the people who were in the club saw, the memories they must have. Because the aftermath was the most horrific thing I have ever seen. It takes you to dark places."

As mass shootings continue across the country, including last month's elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, victims of Pulse still wonder when the violence will end.

"As we see with what's happening today, mass shootings and gun violence have gotten worse since Pulse," says Xavier. "We still have a lot of work to do."