Gun activists protest Obama visit to Oregon killing site

Signs greeting Obama, according to the pooled press reports, were “Please leave us in peace”, “Welcome to Roseburg”, “We support our Sheriff”, and “Gun Free Zones are for sitting ducks”.

The streets of Aviation Drive were lined with citizens, many of them with small US flags in their hands, many of them opposed to the president’s visit after his statement calling for greater gun control last week in the hours after the shooting, as the president’s motorcade made its way to the high school a couple of miles away.

A few of the protesters carried holstered handguns.

No such measure would have provided a safeguard in the Oregon shooting, in which a gunman killed nine people on campus on 1 October and injured nine others before taking his own life.

Following his meeting with the families, the president said he’ll continue pushing for new gun-safety measures.

Obama’s renewed call for stricter gun laws did not go over well in Roseburg, where gun ownership is popular.

Speaking to reporters afterwards, he said he had “strong feelings” about the issue of gun control and said the country needed to come together to prevent such shootings from happening in the future.

On Friday morning the autumn sun was already heating up the asphalt in front of the Roseburg Regional Airport as dozens of sign-carrying demonstrators took their places before the touchdown of Obama’s Marine One helicopter at the local airport.

After meeting with families who lost loved ones, Obama thanked a group of first responders for their service and met with Umpqua Community College leaders to express his condolences.

Don Moody, an aircraft machinist who drove five hours from Seattle to wave a sign at Obama’s arrival, couldn’t agree more.

Others, including Roseburg Mayor Larry Rich, a Republican, insisted the president is welcome.

“One protester posted a photo on Twitter with the comment “‘Defend Roseburg’ planning to protest POTUS at 2 locations in Roseburg over #guncontrol and #UCCShooting”. 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. I think back to Thurston when it happened so close by here, and I think how much it meant to have President Clinton to come at that.

She says she also tried to convey the community’s appreciation for his visit.

David Jaques, publisher of the weekly Roseburg Beacon, told Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly on Monday that local officials didn’t want Obama to visit.