Oregon Tragedy: New Debates Over Gun Control

The Shooting at Umpqua Community College: On a quiet Thursday (1st October), a total of 13 gunshots were heard at Umpqua College, a community college in Southwestern Oregon. The result was 19 total casualties with 10 dead and 9 injured, including the shooter. After the gunfire, about 3,000 students at the scene had to be evacuated for safety while students inside the building had to follow orders from the shooter, some getting shot even if they followed the orders. According to the mother of a student who survived the bloodbath, “the gunman shot a woman getting off her wheelchair, and then shot her when she was trying to get back on her wheelchair.”

According to the police investigation, the perpetrator was 26-year-old Chris Harper-Mercer, 26, who was enrolled as a student in the college’s English and Theatre classes. Trey Heu, one of the survivors, recalls how “Harper Mercer just came into the room and shot aiming at the back of the wall, ordering everybody in the room to get into the centre of the room and get to the ground.” She also stated that he had several guns with him and donned body armour, and was looking rather happy when he came into the room. After the shooting, Harper Mercer committed suicide. There were more firearms found in his house which his father, Ian, was never aware of.

The Debate over Gun Control: Along with the shooting at Umpqua College, a similar accident also occurred recently at Texas University. Truly, the rate of mass killing has been on a steady rise— approximately 8 out of 100 people in the U.S. own guns, a rate far higher than other developed countries around the world. U.S. crime rates have also been on the rise, such as domestic violence, suicides and violence against law enforcement, which has reignited the debate over gun control.

The gun problem has also become the ‘hot potato’ in the Presidential election, wherein Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton took opposite sides in the matter: Hillary Clinton pushed for gun control, wanting adjustments to be made so as to prevent another Sandy Hook-esque massacre. Contrarily, Donald Trump stated that “…even if we change the law, it is of no use. People will be able to get hold of the guns in any other way possible.”

Other major political figures such as Barack Obama have expressed their thoughts on the matter. The American President stated, “As I said just a few months ago, and I said a few months before that, and I said each time we see one of these mass shootings, our thoughts and prayers are not enough. It does not capture the heartache and grief and anger that we should feel. And it does nothing to prevent this carnage from being inflicted someplace else in America next week or a couple of months from now.”