Heather Hatch 8th period: Oregon Shooting Opens Debate On Gun Rights

A downstairs neighbor of Laura Mercer had gained in formation of a shooting at the local Umpqua Community College. He immediately ran upstairs to deliver the news to Ms. Mercer because he knew that her son, Christopher Harper-Mercer attended there. Fearing for her sons life she set out to find him. On her way out of the door she was met by a sheriff and police officers who told her that her son was in fact the shooter. Laura Mercer revealed the information that both her and her son were affected by Asperger's Syndrome, a type of autism spectrum disorder. She often posted her parenting struggles of raising a "head banger" online. She also shared that her had an obsession with guns and she was aware of this. She was actually the reason he knew so much about guns in the first place. She would often take him to the gun range to teach him how to shoot and expressed her distaste of people that owned guns and didn't know how to use them calling them "wannabes". Of the 14 loaded firearms in their household, 6 were found with Mr. Harper-Mercer in the writing class where he opened fire and injured many people. After doing so he took his own life. I believe that this travesty could've been prevented if Ms. Mercer would have sheltered him from the world of guns knowing of the condition. I don't think it was a very safe decision to teach him how to use a firearm. This has happened in the past and has brought up issue with gun rights. This dates back to when the Bill of Rights was first written. I can understand how back then having a gun would've been a good investment and today it might be as well, but I believe that we have too many new technologies for it to be okay to let anyone own a gun. I also agree with a point that Ms. Harper's divorced husband brought up when he said that, this whole event could've been prevented if she hadn't kept so many loaded firearms in the home. I think the government should issue background checks and/or make sure you know how to use your firearm properly and that you are mentally stable before issuing a gun.

Source: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/10/06/us/mother-of-oregon-gunman-wrote-of-keeping-firearms.html