Obama travels to Ore., meets with families of shooting victims

Mr. Obama received a mixed reception in Roseburg.

At Umpqua Community College in Roseburg last week, a gunman killed eight students and a teacher before using the weapon to take his own life. Obama has been calling for stronger gun control laws in the aftermath of the shooting, and that call has grated on the nerves of the many gun advocates in the northwest USA where the school is located.

But one of the protest organizers, Michelle Finn, told the Associated Press: “He’s coming here purely to push his garbage, and we don’t want it”. This blatant disrespect of the victims families, the community and the town of Roseburg, Mr. Obama’s administration is flying not just the 747 that is airforce one to Oregon, but a three helicopter team of Sikorsky’s that make up HMX-1, known as Marine one to travel to Roseburg at the taxpayers expense. Twenty-two percent of American adults say they personally know someone who was killed by another person with a gun, with 6 percent saying the victim was someone in their family.

Robert Hourigan, 53, of Roseburg, initially stopped by the protest at the airport, but later watched for the presidential motorcade at the high school.

“Everybody should carry a gun”, he added.

“No proposal is going to stop every shooting, but we can come up with solutions that stop a few tragedies”, said Democratic Rep. Mike Thompson of California, the leader of the proposal for a special committee.

President Barack Obama gestures as he answers question from members of the media during a news conference in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, Friday, October 2, 2015.

NAU spokeswoman Cindy Brown told CNN that the incident occurred in a parking lot next to a residence hall on campus, which is a designated “gun-free” zone with 20,000 students.

Local newspaper publisher David Jaques also denounced the visit, saying Obama was not “welcome here to grandstand for political purposes”.

Stacy Boylan, father of shooting survivor Ana Boylan, told Fox News that his family would not attend an event with the president because of Obama’s views on guns.

Obama did not speak address the protesters in Roseburg, but Harju took the day off from work, strapped his.40-caliber pistol to his belt buckle, hopped in a rig with the sticker “Oregunian” on the back window and joined hundreds of other protesters.

Earnest has cited requiring background checks for all firearms purchases at gun shows “as the kind of obvious thing that we believe that Congress should do”. Not everyone in Roseburg welcomed the President.

Barack Obama: I just had a chance to talk to them.

So far this year, 55 percent of enacted laws have loosened restrictions, representing an advance even though a majority of legislation is still geared against gun control.