‘GO BACK TO KENYA’: Obama greeted by hundreds of pro-gun protesters during visit to Oregon town where 9 were massacred on college campus
Hundreds of irate Oregonians, toting guns and nasty signs, gave President Obama a derisive Friday welcome before he sat with relatives of last week’s college shooting victims.
“Obama Go Home” and “Go Back To Kenya” read two of the crude homemade posters held aloft by demonstrators who rolled out the rhetoric, not the red carpet for the commander-in-chief.
“He’s exploiting a local tragedy to make a political point,” griped Bruce Rester, 66, who came from Glendale, Ore., carrying a .45-caliber automatic handgun.
“He doesn’t care about the people who live here,” said Rester. “I don’t think he cares about the people who are victims of this shooter.”
Protesters in the former timber town clutched American flags, displayed blunt messages of disrespect to the President or held signs advocating their right to carry guns.
“Obama not welcome,” declared the sign scrawled by Ed Iriarte, 45, who also wore a shirt declaring “F--- Obama.”
PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS/AP
Obama is greeted on the tarmac by Eugene, Ore. Mayor Kitty Pierce upon his arrival in Eugene Friday. Obama is also scheduled to attend a fund-raiser event in Seattle with Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.
A pistol in a holster rested on his right hip.
The dad of one Umpqua Community College student who escaped the homicidal rampage with a bullet to the back agreed with Rester.
Stacy Boylan, father of 18-year-old Ana Boylan, skipped the session with Obama.
“My decision to be absent from Obama’s visit is solely based on my own principles,” Boylan wrote on his Facebook page. “Gun ownership should be the right of everybody.”
Ana Boylan survived after playing dead when she was wounded inside a Snyder Hall classroom where nine people were killed and nine more wounded.
The shooter was armed with a half-dozen weapons when he burst into the classroom during the fourth day of classes and began the methodical executions.
The mass shooting occurred in staunchly conservative Douglas County, where a large contingent of residents own guns for hunting and protection.
Mike Johnson, 48, from Sweet Home, Ore., said the answer to the problem was more guns, not fewer guns.
“I’m a firm believer in the Second Amendment,” said Johnson, who carried a handgun. “If I’m in a situation where someone is attacking me and someone else, I want to be able to protect myself.”
Stacy Boylan, father of 18-year-old Ana Boylan who was injured in the shooting, said he will not be going to meet with Obama “based on my own principles.”
His 20-year-old son David, who attends another Oregon community college, echoed his dad: “It was straight to ‘We need more gun control,’ which I strongly disagree with. It’s the opposite of what we need.”
Obama, within hours of the classroom slaughter, delivered an impassioned White House appeal for stricter measures.
“This is a political choice that we make to allow this to happen every few months in America,” he said.
Eight days later, Obama arrived in Roseburg via helicopter just before noon local time and headed to a private meeting with the victims’ family members.
“I’ve obviously got very strong feelings about this,” the President said in brief remarks after the sit-down. “We’re going to have to come together as a country, but today is about the families.”
The mass shooting occurred in staunchly conservative Douglas County, where the President’s campaign for gun controls falls largely on deaf ears.
The visit to Roseburg, Ore., was a late addition to a West Coast trip to Washington State and California.
Meanwhile, the President is considering unilateral action to tighten background checks, closing an existing loophole that spares certain gun dealers from running the history of purchasers, The Washington Post reported.
Hours before Obama arrived in Roseburg, a freshman at Northern Arizona University killed a fellow student and wounded three more during a parking lot fight early Friday.
The fiancé of slain Oregon victim Sarena Moore, 44, said he was unimpressed by the President’s pointed remarks hours after the shooting.
“He’s just doing a visit to Roseburg to make himself look good,” said Travis Dow. “I’m hoping he does better in person than what he already did on TV.”
Faculty members embrace as they are allowed to return to Umpqua Community College for the first time since the deadly shooting on Oct. 5, 2015. The campus reopened to faculty only after gunman Chris Harper-Mercer killed nine people and left numerous others wounded on the campus last week.Police officers remove crime scene tape on the campus of Umpqua Community College as it reopens to faculty members for the first time since a deadly shooting last week on Oct. 5, 2015.Faculty members wearing "we are UCC" buttons embrace as they are allowed on the Umpqua Community College campus on Oct. 5, 2015. Although staff members returned todaty, no classes will be held for the week as workers continue to clean us the damage left behind after the deadly shooting.A faculty member brings flowers onto campus as she returns to Umpqua Community College for the first time since a deadly shooting left 9 people dead on Oct. 5, 2015.VIEW GALLERY
Shooting at Umpqua Community College in Oregon kills nine
An angry Obama, speaking after the community college killings, said the nation had become “numb” to the rash of multiple murders. And he added that the nation lacked “common sense gun laws.”
UCC alumni Dan Marsh, 70, came out to support the shooting victims but said he understood the animosity toward the President. Marsh started hunting when he was 10 and learned about guns from his dad.
“You can have all the laws on the books that you want,” he said. “The criminals are going to do what they do. My main thing today is just to show...each and every family member that they’re loved and we care.”
Laura Bult reporting from Roseburg, Ore.
