Oregon school shooting: What's different this time?
Will it be different this time?
Of the 294 mass shootings so far in the United States this year, the 294th, the shooting at a community college in Roseburg, Ore., that killed nine on Thursday, has prompted a public reaction that may be slightly different from the 鈥渞outine鈥� President Barack Obama angrily referred to just hours after the shooting.
The routine said Mr. Obama, 鈥渋s the response of ,鈥� he said. 鈥淩ight now, I can imagine the press releases being cranked out. 鈥榃e need more guns,鈥� they鈥檒l argue. 鈥楩ewer gun-safety laws.鈥�
鈥淒oes anybody really believe that?鈥� he asked.
One person who does not is Ian Mercer, the shooter鈥檚 father, who said in an interview with CNN the shooting 鈥渨ould not have happened鈥� if his son had not been able to amass so many guns.
鈥淭he only thing I would like to say is a question that I would like to ask is how on earth could he compound 13 guns? How could that happen? They talk about gun laws, they talk about gun control but every time something like this happens they talk about it and ,鈥� Mr. Mercer, whose son killed himself after the shooting, told CNN.
鈥淚鈥檓 not trying to say that鈥檚 to blame for what happened but if Chris had not been able to get a hold of 13 guns, it wouldn鈥檛 have happened.鈥� Mercer also said he had no idea his son had any guns, let alone more than a dozen. Authorities recovered an additional weapon at the shooter鈥檚 home, bringing the total to 14.
According to authorities, all of the recovered weapons were legally obtained by the shooter or his family members over the past three years through a federally licensed firearms dealer.
The prevalence of gun ownership in a given state is 鈥渟ignificantly associated with state incidence of mass killings with firearms, school shootings, and mass shootings,鈥� from numbers compiled of mass killings in the US between 2006 to December 2013.
The researchers, primarily from Arizona State University working with FBI homicide data, concluded there is 鈥渘o significant association鈥� between state incidence of shootings and the prevalence of mental illness in that state, and found no correlation between the strength of firearm legislation and the frequency of shootings. But the researcher did find that firearm regulations that reduce the availability of guns, such as permit and licensing regulations, have a significant deterrent effect on suicide rates.
The public denunciation of using the shooter鈥檚 name has also highlighted shifting views.
One of the wounded, Chris Mintz, a US Army veteran who served in Iraq, has been credited with saving lives in Thursday鈥檚 shooting, and a social media campaign went viral urging media and the public鈥檚 attention to focus on Mr. Mintz, who was shot seven times,聽instead of the shooter.
A page was set up by Mintz's cousin to raise money for his recovery has received more than $718,000 in donations as of this writing.
