by Dave Workman | Senior Editor
In the aftermath of the campus shooting at Oregon’s Umpqua Community College (UCC), President Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton wasted little time in politicizing the event, but at least this time the president admitted it.
When it was announced that he would actually visit Roseburg, where the shooting occurred, the local newspaper publisher, David Jaques told Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly, “I think the president, first of all, is not welcome in the community.” Jaques mentioned several local public officials who apparently concurred, suggesting that the visit was only to exploit the previous week’s college shooting to push an agenda.
“He wants to come to our community,” Jaques observed during the on-air interview, “and stand on the corpses of our loved ones and make some kind of political point.”
During a press conference, the president set the stage for a confrontation with Second Amendment advocates, and it was not long in coming. Fox News commentators Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity each took verbal jabs at Obama for zeroing in on UCC and other high-profile shootings, but virtually ignoring the ongoing carnage in Chicago, Washington, DC and New York City.
The Seattle Times noted in its coverage of the president’s remarks, “Obama dispensed with any pretense of accommodating his critics, rebutting predicted responses in unusually blunt terms. He noted that even as he spoke, he knew counterarguments were being prepared: that what was needed was more guns, or fewer restrictions.”
Then the president asked, “Does anybody really believe that?” An answer came from KVI’s morning talk host John Carlson, who challenged his Seattle listeners, “Does anyone really believe you, Mr. President?”
The president appeared to have taken a page out of the proverbial “gun control playbook,” which actually exists. Indeed, in the book Dancing in Blood: Exposing the Gun Ban Lobby’s Playbook to Destroy Your Rights, co-authored by Bellevue gun rights advocate Alan Gottlieb last year, it is revealed there is more than one “how-to” guide for gun prohibitionists that tells how to exploit tragedies to push the gun control agenda.
Mrs. Clinton wasted no time in cranking up her anti-gunowner campaign. She made the gun control debate a centerpiece of her campaign for the Democratic nomination for 2016, even declaring war on the National Rifle Association and attacking NRA’s EVP Wayne Lapierre by name.
Her announcement and debate statements were essentially received as a declaration of war against gunowners and the firearms industry. She will “push to repeal” the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, a federal statute that prohibits junk liability lawsuits against firearms manufacturers and dealers, according to NBC News. She will also call for “expanded background checks, and “for a crackdown on the sale of guns on the Internet and at gun shows,” according to published reports on Fox News and ABC.
Clinton, with a record of support for any manner of gun control in the past, essentially reinforced a statement put forth by Alan Gottlieb, head of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, that she will energize the nation’s gunowners and get them to the polls.
“Just as it has been for the past seven years, since Barack Obama was elected in 2008, a Clinton nomination in 2016 will guarantee continued strong gun sales and expanded gun ownership,” Gottlieb contended in a press release. “Even among those who favor expanded background checks there is strong sentiment for protecting gun rights rather than controlling gun ownership.
“Between now and November 2016,” he predicted, “we expect Hillary Clinton to try to stigmatize and marginalize gun owners, but in fact she will energize those millions of law-abiding citizens whose votes she fears the most. That’s why we’re grateful for her campaign rhetoric.”
There also was considerable confusion in the media and on the Internet about whether the UCC campus is a true “gun-free zone,” because it appears that students and others who are legally licensed to carry in Oregon can be armed on school property. At least one student, a military veteran, told Fox News that he was carrying a sidearm but that a member of the staff told him to take shelter, instead.
However, CBS and the Associated Press in Seattle reported that the campus is a gun-free zone, and quoted the college’s security policy, which states, “Possession, use, or threatened use of firearms (including but not limited to BB guns, air guns, water pistols, and paint guns) ammunition, explosives, dangerous chemicals, or any other objects as weapons on college property, except as expressly authorized by law or college regulations, is prohibited.”
Also, during a press conference, Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin told a reporter that the campus is a gun-free zone. He repeatedly refused to identify the killer, who was fatally shot in a gun battle with responding lawmen.
Authorities and news media identified the killer as Chris Harper-Mercer, 26, who had apparently moved from California to the southern Oregon logging community of Roseburg and was living with his mother. There was a photo of the gunman circulating on social media which showed him holding what appeared to be a Ruger 10/22 semi-auto rifle.
According to NBC News, UCC had considered hiring armed security for the campus. School officials ultimately rejected the idea. According to retired UCC President Joe Olson, “We thought we were a very safe campus, and having armed security officers on campus might change the culture.” That “culture” now appears to have been changed, possibly forever.
Not only did Obama quickly exploit the event, so did the gun prohibition lobby. Everytown for Gun Safety has jumped into action, sending out a mass e-mail over the signature of Anneliese Davis, Oregon chapter leader of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. Her message read, in part, “My blood is boiling. My frustration is deep. But what I’m feeling doesn’t even come close to what the friends and families of the victims and survivors are experiencing right now.”
