“Routine”
Friday, October 2nd, 2015October 2, 2015
On October 1, a student of Umpqua Community College student is comforted during a candlelight vigil for those killed in a school shooting there that day. Credit: © Rich Pedroncelli, AP Photo
Yesterday, 10 people died in a school shooting in Oregon. Nine of the dead were students and the 10th was the gunman, who killed himself as he was cornered by police. Nine other students were wounded in the incident, which happened at Umpqua (UMP kwah) Community College in the small town of Roseburg, some 175 miles (282 kilometers) south of Portland.
The Guardian, a London newspaper, today reported that, counting Roseburg, there have been 994 incidents in which there were four or more people killed in a shooting in the United States since the beginning of 2013. It averages to more than 1 such shooting per day.
Last evening, in the 15th speech he has made after a shooting incident over the course of his presidency, a visibly upset U.S. President Barack Obama stated: “Somehow, this has become routine. The reporting is routine. My response here at this podium ends up being routine. …We’ve become numb to this … We talked about this after Columbine and Blacksburg; after Tucson, after Newtown; after Aurora, after Charleston.”
After many of the incidents named, Obama spurred Congress to pass legislation regulating guns, or assault rifles, or background checks on people wanting to purchase guns, but certain members of Congress continue to block such legislation. Citizens of the United States are divided on whether limiting the purchase of guns would reduce shootings in the United States, or whether an armed populace makes citizens of the United States safer. There are few limits now.
Details on the Roseburg shooter are emerging slowly. His name was Chris Harper-Mercer, a 26-year-old who lived near the university and is said to have been quiet and reserved. He was carrying six weapons—five handguns and one rifle—and police found eight more at his home…
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