When I'm Right, I'm Right

Remember how i said, based on my recollections of a lot of time spent in and around Roseburg, that the reaction of the town generally to proposed new gun laws in the wake of the recent attack would be not be favorable?

Residents in Roseberg, Oregon, are rallying around the Second Amendment in the wake of the heinous attack on Umpqua Community College (UCC),

According to the Associated Press, Roseberg is a mill town surrounded by hunting and fishing opportunities, and one where many residents say they do not leave home without a handgun for self-defense. They do not carry because crime is high, but because crime is low and they want to keep it that way.

Consequently, residents like J.C. Smith believe the attack at UCC was made possible by the fact that the school denied the exercise of Second Amendment rights to its students. Smith suggests that “barring people from carrying guns on campus made it particularly vulnerable to a ‘lone wolf’ attack” like the one witnessed Thursday.

Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin

Roseberg sits in Douglas County, where Sheriff John Hanlin drew attention to himself by fighting an expansion of gun control in 2014. He fought hard against expanded background checks–gun control’s Trojan Horse–even sending a letter to Vice President Joe Biden expressing his conviction that the laws being pushed were “offending the constitutional rights of [Douglas County] citizens.”

On October 2–the day after the heinous attack on UCC–Sheriff Hanlin made clear that his views remained the same and gun control is not the solution to stopping attacks like the one carried out in Roseberg.

 She Was Critically Injured In Oregon Massacre- What She’s Saying About Guns Now Shocks Many

The devastating school shooting in Oregon has prompted many anti-gun responses, including one’s from President Obama. There are many, however, who believe that revoking our Second Amendment rights is not the solution, including someone who was personally involved in the attack. Umpqua College student, Chayenne Fitzgerald, was shot in the back by the perpetrator, but even so she still supports the right to keep and bear arms. She is currently in the hospital recovering, needing surgery to have a kidney removed.

Jesse Fitzgerald, the brother of Cheyanne, in words that would surprise proponents of gun control, stated: “We’re pro-Second Amendment, pro-guns. My sister, my mother, my whole family are all in favor. We were talking about it in the hospital and none of us have changed our minds.”