Oregon Shooting

http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/03/us/oregon-umpqua-community-college-shooting/

When is the right time to talk about gun laws?

Ten people were killed during a shooting at Umpqua Community College near Roseburg  last Thursday morning, including the shooter. Nine others were wounded, according to the police. “Chris” the gunman was shot by the police caused by a firefight. He was 26 years old, enrolled at the community college where he did the shooting. The gunman had hidden 4 guns at the school and one pistol and had 7 more in his house where the sheriffs found. This shooting has to be the worst in Oregon, and very devastating. In the classroom where the gunman shot the students, one girl survived by pretending to be dead. She told her story and said she was scared, she thought that was going to be her last day, she would never get too see her 3 children or her husband. When she was pretending to be dead, she heard the gunman tell another student he was the “lucky one” and handed him an envelope.

http://markmanson.net/school-shootings

And each time, as a culture, we work ourselves into a frenzy debating the angry exterior message, while ignoring the interior life and context of each killer. We miss the point entirely.

Everyone that was interviewed said they had a bad vibe about the shooter, saying he looked around so much, and wasn’t close to anyone. The gunman’s mother was defending him saying he had mental disabilities but, he had served in the U.S Army for a few months in 2008 but never passed basic training and was dismissed for “failing to meet the minimum administrative standards.” When the body of the shooter was examined it was concluded that he actually shot himself; committed suicide. Everyone from the college and surrounding town lit up candles spelling “UCC” having in memory everyone that didn’t get too achieve in life like they wanted.

A solution to gun violence in America is needed now.  Will the candidates for public office take action to make a meaningful difference?  The solutions to this problem are many but we need to start somewhere. The graphic below supports a simple message of better laws and regulation but the answer is more complicated than that and the perspectives on the problem are very divided.  We need to start somewhere.  The first step is always admitting the extent of the problem.