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College shooting sparks gun law debate

Nine people were killed when a gunman opened fire at Oregon’s Umpqua Community College on October 1, forcing the nation to face yet another mass shooting.

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A day later, the store was doing a brisk trade with men and women of all ages mooching about, a few with revolvers visible on their belts.

“The issue of sensible steps that can be taken to protect our communities from gun violence continues to be a top priority of this administration”, said Press Secretary Josh Earnest on Thursday afternoon. “People have been a little surprised by these statistics”, CNN quoted Adam Lankford, an associate professor of criminal justice at the University of Alabama, who did the analysis.

There are at least five other places in the town to buy guns, he said.

Moffett said most of his officers have a military background.

Mark Wilson/Getty Images President Barack Obama said these shootings have become ‘routine’. He also anticipated the reaction of groups such as the National Rifle Association, which fight any new gun regulation with contributions to the politicians from the statehouse to the Congress and seem always to win despite polls showing that the public is not opposed to responsible gun control.

And he is not alone.

Obama’s sentiments were echoed by Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. With no armed security on campus, it left students and teachers defenseless.

I’m sorry, it’s a very cynical thing to say but, you know, he’s had an avalanche of bad news over the past 36 hours and I think he’s using this shooting to get out from under it”.

Mike Huckabee said on Twitter Thursday that the president was “quick to politicize this tragedy to advance his liberal, anti-gun agenda”.

And he has no time for government meddling.

“Maybe instead of rants about gun safety laws, we should assess how we eliminate gun free zones where human safety is placed at a disadvantage”, West added.

The Pew data from December 2014 showed that 63 per cent of those surveyed thought that keeping a gun in the home made them safer, compared with 35 per cent 15 years before.

Since 2013, amid Washington’s inaction, several states led by Democrats passed more restrictive gun control laws.

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Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, speaking after a tour of a Madison manufacturer, called for a “thoughtful” discussion on the issue but said he wasn’t sure anything could be done to prevent the shootings.

President Obama at an interfaith vigil for the shooting victims from Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012