President Barack Obama has arrived in Oregon to console victims and affected families of last week’s deadly community college shooting, just hours after similar incidents at the campuses of two separate American universities.
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President Obama is considering new executive action on gun control following last week’s shooting at a community college in Oregon.
Just before noon local time on Friday, officials at Texas Southern University said two people were shot at a student housing complex, prompting the school to be put on lockdown and classes to be canceled.
Nine people were killed and nine others were wounded in the October 1 shooting spree at Umpqua Community College.
Protesters gather in Roseburg before Obama’s visit, October 9 2015.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said residents and gun advocates “have nothing to fear”, about the President’s visit.
“We’re going to have to come together as a country, but today is about the families”, Obama said before walking to his limo.
“This area is the salt of the earth and disrespectful”, said Michelle Finn, organizer of ‘Defend Earth, Deny Barack Obama, ‘ one of the largest protest groups.
“It’s not that we are bloodthirsty, it’s that we want to protect ourselves and our families”, he said. “I think it is important to band together and make each other feel good”, Benoit said.
Billie McMillian, a business owner from Eagle Point who attended the protest with her husband, said they came to support the families of the victims and because they didn’t agree with the president.
“And, of course, what’s also routine is that somebody, somewhere will comment and say, ‘Obama politicized this issue, ‘” he said.
In the wake of the Umpqua killings, Obama angrily called on Congress to do more and warned that failure to act on gun control was a “political decision”, vowing to keep pushing for reform.
A few of the most poignant moments of Obama’s presidency have occurred in his role as consoler in chief.
The first time Obama attempted to pass the measures he is now considering taking executive action on was in 2012, after a gunman massacred 20 children and six adults at the Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. The White House adjusted his schedule to add the Roseburg stop. “Every country in the world has people with mental health issues”. Earlier this year, Sheriff John Hanlin of Roseburg – a town of about 22,000 that’s more than 70 miles south of Eugene – appeared before a committee of the Oregon Legislature and spoke out against a proposed state bill to expand background checks to private gun sales.
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Under the plan, dealers who sell guns above a certain amount would have to perform background checks and obtain a license from the ATF.
