October 1st 2015 is a day that will live in infamy for so many of the victims and people who will be affected by the shooting in Roseburg, Oregon that left 9 dead and as many as 20 injured. Chris Harper Mercer is the man responsible for the shooting according to authorities. Mercer lived an isolated life and had strong views towards religion. According to survivors’ accounts, the killer shot the professor and then told all the Christians present to stand up before shooting them all as well. After the shooting, Mercer turned the gun on himself and committed suicide.
This shooting is yet another example of the issues with gun regulation in the United States. The President made comments after the shooting, declaring, “We know that other countries, in response to one mass shooting, have been able to craft laws that almost eliminate mass shootings. Friends of ours, allies of ours — Great Britain, Australia, countries like ours. So we know there are ways to prevent it.” Australia in particular recently implemented a gun ban and a gun buyback program, and the country has seen the number of mass shootings dwindle. Of course such action the United States would violate the Second Amendment to the Constitution. The police uncovered 13 guns legally purchased by Mercer and members of his family. Mercer, a known member of the online group “beta boys,” which enjoys mass murder shootings similar to the Umpqua shooting, had no trouble acquiring firearms. The government has attempted to strengthen gun laws in the United States after prior shootings such as Sandy Hook, however these laws have yet to be federally enacted. New York strengthened its gun control in 2013 in the form of the New York S.A.F.E. ACT, which banned guns legally classified as assault weapons, limited the magazine capacity of all weapons to seven, and asked that all gun owners place only seven bullets into their existing magazines that may be able to carry more. The premier assault weapon that New York banned and the most popular rifle nation-wide, the AR-15, was recovered by police in Oregon and is alleged to be the weapon used by Mercer in the shooting.
The government must come up with a new reform to limit and regulate access to certain guns to a regular citizen. We do not necessarily need to ban all guns - of course not - but there are some weapons, when put in the wrong hands, that can do a lot of damage. To quote our own Mr. Burdett after he affirmed his support for the protection of the right of people to own most types of firearms, “These assault weapons have no other purpose.”
October 1st 2015 is a day that will live in infamy for so many of the victims and people who will be affected by the shooting in Roseburg, Oregon that left 9 dead and as many as 20 injured. Chris Harper Mercer is the man responsible for the shooting according to authorities. Mercer lived an isolated life and had strong views towards religion. According to survivors’ accounts, the killer shot the professor and then told all the Christians present to stand up before shooting them all as well. After the shooting, Mercer turned the gun on himself and committed suicide.
This shooting is yet another example of the issues with gun regulation in the United States. The President made comments after the shooting, declaring, “We know that other countries, in response to one mass shooting, have been able to craft laws that almost eliminate mass shootings. Friends of ours, allies of ours — Great Britain, Australia, countries like ours. So we know there are ways to prevent it.” Australia in particular recently implemented a gun ban and a gun buyback program, and the country has seen the number of mass shootings dwindle. Of course such action the United States would violate the Second Amendment to the Constitution. The police uncovered 13 guns legally purchased by Mercer and members of his family. Mercer, a known member of the online group “beta boys,” which enjoys mass murder shootings similar to the Umpqua shooting, had no trouble acquiring firearms. The government has attempted to strengthen gun laws in the United States after prior shootings such as Sandy Hook, however these laws have yet to be federally enacted. New York strengthened its gun control in 2013 in the form of the New York S.A.F.E. ACT, which banned guns legally classified as assault weapons, limited the magazine capacity of all weapons to seven, and asked that all gun owners place only seven bullets into their existing magazines that may be able to carry more. The premier assault weapon that New York banned and the most popular rifle nation-wide, the AR-15, was recovered by police in Oregon and is alleged to be the weapon used by Mercer in the shooting.
The government must come up with a new reform to limit and regulate access to certain guns to a regular citizen. We do not necessarily need to ban all guns - of course not - but there are some weapons, when put in the wrong hands, that can do a lot of damage. To quote our own Mr. Burdett after he affirmed his support for the protection of the right of people to own most types of firearms, “These assault weapons have no other purpose.”
