Eight students and a teacher were killed on October 1 when Christopher Harper-Mercer, 26, burst into a classroom and opened fire shortly after 10:30 a.m.at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, about 180 miles south of Portland.
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A visibly angry Obama said after the shooting that thoughts and prayers are no longer enough and that the nation’s gun laws needed to be changed.
Just before leaving Roseburg, he told a small group of reporters: “We’re going to have to come together as a country, but today is about the families”.
But his message did not sit well in Roseburg, where gun ownership is popular and a few people began mobilising against his visit nearly as soon as the White House announced he was coming.
About 250 people gathered in Roseburg, a few driving for hours, to protest Obama’s visit on Friday. Loved ones of Sarena Moore say it’s like having a piece of her, back with them.
Like many of those who peacefully protested outside the tiny airport where the president’s helicopter touched down, Harju said stricter gun control laws would only hurt law-abiding citizens.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and two high schools turning a passion of UCC shooting victim Treven Anspach into a fundraiser for his family.
University president Rita Hartung Cheng said she was “shocked and deeply saddened”.
The President plans a private get-together with grieving family members of the victims, with the White House declaring the meeting will focus on comfort and sympathy rather than politics.
Downing also said the shooter seemed to lose interest when a woman told him she couldn’t move her legs to stand up because of the pain. After 20 children and six adults were killed in 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, Hanlin sent Vice President Joe Biden a letter saying he would never comply with any gun-control law from the Obama administration.
“It viscerally offended me that he uses something like this to pursue his own ulterior motives – destroying this country, undermining America”, said the 62-year-old, who said he bought his first gun when he was 16 with proceeds from his paper route. “They need to heal before he comes here with his agenda”.
Local newspaper publisher David Jaques also denounced the visit, saying Obama was not “welcome here to grandstand for political purposes”.
Automaker says it told EPA about a “software feature” in its 2016 clean diesel models. “We want quality of guns – in the right hands at the right time”.
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Gary Schoeller, 26, of Roseburg, wore a holstered handgun on his hip. He said the issue was one “we should politicise”. “Polarizing as usual, Mr. 0bama has insisted on politicizing the event as a conduit for increased executive orders on gun control via means of his pen, and his phone”.
