A mass shooting that took place at a community college in Oregon overnight was the 294th of its kind in the US this year—for clarity, that statistic is derived from a mass shooting tracker, which counts shootings that leave four or more people either wounded or killed—following 2015’s trend of, on average, more than one mass shooting occurring in the US each day.
CBS News is identifying the shooter as 26-year-old Chris Harper Mercer, who killed 13 people and wounded 20 others at the Umpqua Community College overnight, as a security lockdown lasted over an hour. The shooter reportedly died from a fatal confrontation with police at the scene.
#UCCShooting: Here are clips from the Roseburg police scanner as officers exchange fire with the Umpqua Community College shooter in Oregon.
Posted by AJ+ on Thursday, 1 October 2015
A ominous post on 4Chan the night before the shooting appears to encourage students to avoid Umpqua community college the following day.
The message, unconfirmed by the authorities to be from Chris Harper Mercer, reads, “Some of you guys are alright. Don’t go to school tomorrow if you are in the northwest. Happening thread will be posted tomorrow morning, so long space robots.”
Some commenters appear to offer advice on the shooting before it took place, replying to the original post.
“You might want to target a girls school which is safer because there are no beta males throwing themselves for their rescue.
Do not use a shotgun. I would suggest a powerful assault rifle and a pistol or 2x pistols. Possibly the type of pistols who have 15+ amm.”
According to the New York Times, Federal law enforcement officials are currently investigating the thread.
President Barack Obama commented on the shootings in an address at the Whitehouse this morning, lamenting the massacre and expressing frustration at the “routine” regularity of fatal shootings in the country. Obama said that “thoughts and prayers” for victims was not enough to address gun control in the “only advanced country in the world that sees these mass shootings every few months.”
“Somehow this has become routine. The reporting is routine. My response here at this podium ends up being routine. The conversation in the aftermath of it… we’ve become numb to it.”
“Our thoughts and prayers are not enough. It does not convey the heartache and anger we feel.” —@POTUS #UCCShooting
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) October 1, 2015
President Obama also praised countries like Australia on their successful gun control.
“We know that other countries in response to one mass shooting have managed to craft laws that almost eliminate mass shootings. Friends of ours, allies of ours, Great Britain, Australia, countries like ours. So we know there are ways to prevent it.”
Watch @POTUS speak on the tragic shooting in Roseburg, Oregon. #UCCShooting http://t.co/8sheX2zpFa
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) October 1, 2015
via SMH.
