Angst, anger and grief are on the minds of many Americans after last week’s mass shooting at a community college in Oregon. How did we get here – here being the near routine incidents of one person deliberately shooting completely innocent victims? Some observers are wading back into the debate over gun control, wielding studies and statistics to back their solution to this deadly epidemic.
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Americans, Once Again, Grapple With How to Stop Gun Violence
One More Shooting Massacre in America
Columbine. Newtown. Blacksburg. Aurora. Now Roseburg joins the infamous list of American towns where mass shootings have occurred. At least 40 times in the past 30 years, gunfire has interrupted the mundane goings-on at a workplace, a church, a shopping mall, a restaurant, a school. 375 people have been killed. Just a few hours after a 26 year-old man opened fire Thursday on the campus of a community college in Oregon, President Barack Obama appeared before the cameras. “But as I said just a few months ago… our thoughts and prayers are not enough. It’s not enough.” The president’s voice was thick with frustration and anger as he spoke about the spate of mass shootings that he said “… has somehow become routine.” At the heart of his ire is not only grief for the 10 people gunned down while attending class, but the issue of gun control. Access to firearms in America is a deeply emotional and divisive issue. Obama believes that laws limiting a citizen’s ability to get hold of a gun is key to stopping such tragic shootings. But to do that, who would be willing to commit political suicide in the name of gun control?