Obama: Americans must ‘come together’ on gun crimes

After two more campus shootings left two students dead and four wounded in Arizona and Texas on Friday, the president’s comments after nine were shot and killed at an Oregon college the week before become even more foreboding. Following last week’s tragedy, he gave his 15th response to a mass shooting since taking office, blasting Congress for its unwillingness to act on gun control and saying gun violence is something that should be politicized.

But when he emerged from the approximately hour-long meeting Friday, he said, “Today is about the families”.

On the day of that shooting, Obama reiterated his call for new restrictions on guns and expanded background checks. “We’ve talked about this after Columbine, after Blacksburg, after Newtown, after Aurora, after Charleston”, Obama said.

(AP) – When President Barack Obama arrives here Friday, he will find a timber town still in mourning over the shooting that killed eight community college students and a teacher.

Local officials say the president is welcome, but that sentiment is not universal.

NEAL KARLINSKY (voice-over): In Oregon today, the President found himself in hostile territory during a visit he said was all about consoling victims.

Reuters said Obama only mentioned about the need for the country to come together to prevent such shootings from happening in the future.

“The Governor updated the President on the state’s ongoing efforts to provide support and resources to the families affected by the Umpqua Community College shooting and the entire community of Roseburg. He’s coming here purely to push his garbage, and we don’t want it”, said Michelle Finn, who is helping to organize the protests planned for intersections near the small airport where Obama’s helicopter is expected to touch down.

There were several hundred people clustered outside the gate to the airport and in the parking lot of a nearby Home Depot, pretty typical for a presidential visit.

The Umpqua Community College shooting, as reported by HNGN, saw 10 deaths after student Christopher Harper Mercer went on a killing rampage before losing his own life in a gunfight with police.

60, of Chiloquin, protests the visit by US President Barack Obama to the town of Roseburg, Oregon, on October. 9, 2015. Permits are required to carry a handgun (but not rifles or shotguns), and firearms may be carried in restaurants, according to the National Rifle Association.

In Roseburg, however, it’s about more than just gun control.

KARLINSKY: Her father went so far as to say he would refuse to meet with the President.

He made the visit to offer support and comfort to the families and victims, but walked right into a controversy he started.

STACY BOYLAN (from Fox News Channel’s The Kelly File): I am – you know, in disagreement with his policies on gun control; and, therefore, we will not be attending his visit. “Whether or not you agree with him, I think this huge political disrespect shown by this crowd is ill-placed”, John Poole told KATU.