Shooting in Oregon

Undated photo of Chris Harper-Mercer from his Myspace page

Just on the first day of October, a 26 year old community college student named Chris Harper-Mercer had attended his English class just like any other day. The thing is that that is only what all of his peers and teacher thought. During the class, this student opened fire on everyone else in the room using military grade weapons. It turns out that he brought six guns that day and 5 ammunition magazines. Eventually the police caught up to the gunman and he was killed in a shootout. In this school shooting, Harper-Mercer killed nine students and teachers, while injuring many others.

According to friends and neighbors, Chris Harper-Mercer was a kind of "awkward loser" who was always seen riding his red bike. He lived with his mother who was friendly to the whole community. While she would chat with other people, Chris would keep to himself and not engage. After a thorough search of their apartment, police found seven other guns.

Unlike some other mass shooters, Harper-Mercer was an army boot camp dropout who flunked out in 2008. After extensive chaser, investigators found through his social media that he was fascinated by the Irish Republic Army, was frustrated by organized religion, and tracked mass shootings that happened all around the world. He seemed to urge others to watch a Virginia shooting from August and stated that "the more people you kill, the more you're in the limelight." There was also a message posted on 4chan, a racist and misogynistic forum, that described an upcoming attack, but it is unproven if it was commented by Harper-Mercer.

 Yes all of the guns that he used in the crime were legally registered, but that doesn't make it right for him to be able to use them. I have mixed feelings towards gun control, but if the laws were a little stricter, then there wouldn't be over one shooting a day. In the 274 days so far of 2015, there have been 294 mass shootings. Learn more towards gun control here. Now I'm not saying that no one in the United States shouldn't be able to own a gun or weapon, but that restrictions for registering for a gun are much more intensive so that the police potentially have more leads before crimes happen. I hope that changes will be made and less people die each day, but hoping will only get us so far.


Article describing Oregon shooting time.com