Over 200 gun-rights activists in the U.S. have protested President Barack Obama’s visit to the state of Oregon to meet with the families of victims of last week’s college mass shooting.
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President Barack Obama has departed from Roseburg after meeting for nearly an hour with family members of victims of last week’s deadly shooting at Umpqua Community College.
Immediately after a gunman killed eight students and a teacher at Roseburg’s Umpqua Community College last week, Obama said thoughts and prayers are no longer enough in the aftermath and that the nation’s gun laws needed to be changed.
Pro-gun supporters turned out at the airport to protest against the President’s call for tighter firearms laws.
Local officials say the president is welcome, but that sentiment is not universal.
The protesters were indignant at how Obama quickly and callously politicised the murders when just minutes after the rampage he called a press conference at the White House not to condemn the killings but to push for tighter gun control. Stupid because she was in a parking lot, where innocent people are milling around.
After the family meeting, Obama said the country will have to “figure out how we stop things like this from happening”. “If I have to get a smaller clip for my pistol, I’ll do it”, resident John Poole said.
A gunman with six weapons, including a rifle, killed nine people and wounded nine more before taking his own life during a battle with police.
“The fact that the college didn’t permit guards to carry guns, there was no one there to stop this man”, said Craig Schlesinger, pastor at the Garden Valley Church.
Obama arrived in the town of Roseburg – located about 180 miles south of Portland – at about 12:30 p.m. local time Friday. “We all know what that agenda is: gun control“.
The city of Roseburg had issued a statement prior to the visit saying such comments did not represent the community as a whole, and that the president would receive a warm welcome.
“I don’t think we pose any threat to the school”, manager Rachel Dresser said.
“Oregon Governor Kate Brown joined the President for the auto ride from Roseburg Regional Airport to Roseburg High School”, said White House spokeswoman Brandi Hoffine. “The Second Amendment Protects the First”, read his sign, which was festooned with two tiny American flags. Obama pulled in only 35 percent of the vote in the 2012 election in Roseburg and surrounding Douglas County.
She later added, “People died here, and you can’t make laws to bring these people back”. For months prior to the attack, faculty and staff had debated whether to arm campus security officers, but they could not overcome their divisions on the issue.
ALMAGUER: In a country divided over guns, this community is united in remembering those who are gone.
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“I’ve got a few very strong feelings about this”, said a somber Obama, speaking so low he could barely be heard.
