On Oct. 1, 2015, yet another attack on young adults occurred in Roseburg, Oregon. A 26- year-old student named Christopher Harper-Mercer killed eight students as well as an assistant professor on the Umpqua College Campus. Another nine students were injured in the event. Witness Matthew Downing said in his statement that Harper-Mercer said to him the day of the event that he was “the lucky one” and would not shoot him if he gave an envelope containing a flash drive to the police. Downing said, “I stood up and he pointed the gun at me and this is the moment I thought I was going to die. He paused for a second and then handed the envelope to me and said to sit in the very back seat and face him.” Harper-Mercer allegedly made all of the other students go to the center of the classroom. According to Downing, “The shooter … asked one of the other students to stand up and when he did asked him if he was religious. The student said he was Christian and was shot.” It seems that if the student was Christian, the shooter would kill them. If they answered otherwise, he would shoot one of their limbs.
The nine people whose lives were lost that day are Lucero Alcaraz, 19, Treven Taylor Anspach, 20, Rebecka Ann Carnes, 18, Quinn Glenn Cooper, 18, Kim Saltmarsh Dietz, 59, Lucas Eibel, 18, Jason Dale Johnson, 33, Lawrence Levine, 67, assistant professor, and Sarena Dawn Moore, 44. After this calamity, both the Gov. of Oregon, Kate Brown, and Pres. Barack Obama traveled to Roseburg to meet with the families of the victims as well as the survivors of the attack. This event called for yet another look at gun control laws. According to everytownreasearch.com, at least 152 school shootings have occurred in America since 2013 which shows that government action towards heavier gun control should be taken into consideration. As a closing remark in his statement, Downing writes, “The final thing I want to add is that I and everybody else should get from this is that any day could be your last. You don't want anybody's last memory of you to be a bad one so everybody needs to take it upon themselves to just be a lot nicer to people.”
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Ersha KumarWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
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