President Obama arrived in Oregon Friday for a visit with families affected by last week’s deadly shooting at Umpqua Community College.
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Demonstrators wait outside of Roseburg Regional Airport for President Barack Obama’s arrival in Roseburg, Ore., Friday, October 9, 2015.
Obama landed in Eugene at around 11:30 a.m. Friday, along with U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, and Rep. Peter DeFazio.
Obama got on the presidential helicopter for a short flight to Roseburg, about 70 miles south of Eugene.
The decision not to have the president deliver a public speech in Roseburg may also have something to do with the politics of the town, a place that, despite the shooting, remains largely opposed to changes in gun laws and generally disapproves of the Obama presidency.
“On principle, I find that I am in disagreement with his policies on gun control, and therefore, we will not be attending the visit”, Stacy Bolan, whose daughter was shot and survived the shooting, told Fox News Channel.
“There are going to be moments as we go forward where we have to come together and figure out how we stop this from happening, said the President”.
“I’ve got a few very strong feelings about this”, said a somber Obama, speaking so low he could barely be heard.
A White House push for stricter gun laws immediately after the Newtown shooting failed in the Senate.
Campus police chief G.T. Fowler called it an isolated incident but “the Arizona Board of Regents prohibits students – prohibits anyone – to carry guns on campus”.
Those in attendance brought signs, chairs and banners to share their opinion about the President’s visit a week after the Umpqua Community College shooting.
“My family, my friends, everybody down here is not happy about him coming”, Finn told People magazine before Obama’s visit. Other signs had negative messages like, “Gun Free Zones are for sitting ducks” and “Obama is wrong”.
More than 8,400 people had RSVP’d for the protest on a Facebook page called ‘Defend Roseburg – Deny barack Obama’.
Instead, Confederate flags and anti-Obama signs greeted the president as his motorcade made its way to Roseburg High School in Roseburg. When I saw the gun when he walked in the first thought in my head was that this couldn’t be real.
Last week, nine people were killed when a lone gunman opened fire inside a classroom at the rural Oregon community college.
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Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation, said the president does not have the legal authority to extend this definition because the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, which established the system of requirements for background checks, explicitly defines who qualifies as a firearms dealer.
