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Multiple news outlets are reporting that President Obama plans to visit Roseburg this Friday in the wake of last week's mass shooting at Umpqua Community College, in which the shooter killed nine people and then turned the gun on himself.
According to OPB, the White House has said Obama plans "to visit privately with families of victims of last week's tragic shooting."
No word yet about what else his visit will include, but if his speech last week after the shooting is any indication, Obama is tired of Republican intransigence on gun control. "Somehow this has become routine," he said. "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 this."
Later he added: "This is a political choice that we make to allow this to happen every few months in America."
Of course, not everyone thinks the proper response to the 294th mass shooting in America this year is to stop making it easier to get a gun than it is to get birth control. Take, for example, the guy who runs a conservative newsletter in Roseburg, who has said he won't personally welcome Obama to town because his visit would be "a campaign stop for agenda to take away American citizen's right to own firearms."
One wonders if Obama's final act as President will be to finally take away everyone's guns, just like the right-wing conspiracy theorists have said he would all along. Hope and change, Obama. We're ready.
Willamette Week
