Red Bluff Daily News

October 09, 2015

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ByJonathanJ.Cooper The Associated Press ROSEBURG, ORE. When President Barack Obama arrives here Friday, he will find a timber town still in mourning over the shoot- ing that killed eight com- munity college students and a teacher. But he will also find another deeply held emotion — seething anger over his calls for new gun restrictions. Only a week after a gun- man strode into a writing class and opened fire on classmates, many people in the region known as Or- egon's Bible Belt are quick to reaffirm their opposi- tion to stricter gun laws. At least one parent of a shoot- ing survivor says his family will not meet with the pres- ident, although his daugh- ter said she hopes to. And gun-rights supporters plan to protest during Obama's visit. "He's not wanted here. He's coming here purely to push his garbage, and we don't want it," said Mi- chelle Finn, who is help- ing to organize the pro- tests planned for intersec- tions near the small airport where Obama's helicopter is expected to touch down. Staunchly conservative Douglas County is bristling with gun owners who use their weapons for hunting, target shooting and pro- tecting themselves. A com- monly held opinion in this area is that the solution to mass killings is more people carrying guns, not fewer. A single unarmed secu- rity guard was on patrol the day of the shooting. For months prior to the attack, faculty and staff had de- bated whether to arm cam- pus security officers, but they could not overcome their divisions on the issue. "The fact that the col- lege didn't permit guards to carry guns, there was no one there to stop this man," said Craig Schlesinger, pastor at the Garden Valley Church. Schlesinger is among the clergy who have been comforting the families of those slain last Thursday by Christopher Harper- Mercer, who had six guns within him on campus and eight more at the apartment he shared with his mother. Nine other people were wounded, some seriously. The gunman fatally shot himself in front of his vic- tims after he was shot by police. Sheriff John Hanlin has become a symbol of the re- gion's rejection of tighter gun control. After 20 chil- dren and six adults were killed in 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, Hanlin sent Vice President Joe Biden a letter saying he would never comply with any gun-control law from the Obama administration. Hanlin, a visible figure at news conferences following the Roseburg killings, has said now is not the time for a debate about gun control. Immediately after the shooting, Obama said he intended to politicize the Roseburg attack to put pres- sure on Congress to adopt gun restrictions — a state- ment that infuriated much of this town of 22,000 peo- ple about 180 miles south of Portland. Some families are di- vided, even those directly affected by the rampage. Stacy Boylan, father of shooting survivor Ana Boylan, told Fox News that his family would not attend an event with the president because of Obama's views on guns. But Ana Boylan said she would indeed meet Obama if she has a chance to do so in private. "I do have a few ques- tions and I'd like to see him," Boylan said. Her mother, Deanna Boylan, said her daughter wants to ask the questions in private, not in a news story. Trying to tamp down suggestions that Obama would receive a cold recep- tion, Douglas County com- missioners released a state- ment Thursday welcoming him. "Regardless of our differ- ences with the president on policy issues, we await the president's arrival and look forward to his show of sup- port" for a grieving commu- nity that is enduring "im- measurable" heartache, said Susan Morgan, chair- woman of the commission. The president has never been popular in this corner of southern Oregon. Barely a third of the county voted for him in the last election. VISIT IN AFTERMATH OF MASS SHOOTING InOregon,Obamawillfind grief but also resentment JAMIELUSCH—MAILTRIBUNE Rogue Community College and the RCC Association of Student Government host a candlelight vigil to show support for Umpqua Community College in downtown Medford, Ore., on Wednesday. The Associated Press OKLAHOMA CITY Gov. Mary Fallin agreed Thurs- day that all executions in Oklahoma should be de- layed after an autopsy report revealed that the wrong drug was used to stop an inmate's heart in January — one that experts say doesn't work as quickly or effectively. Fallin said "it became apparent" last week that prison officials used potas- sium acetate — not potas- sium chloride, as required under the state's protocol — to execute Charles Fred- erick Warner in January. "Until we have complete confidence in the system, we will delay any further executions," Fallin said in a statement. The autopsy report, pre- pared the day after War- ner's Jan. 15 execution and revealed by The Oklaho- man newspaper on Thurs- day, describes the instru- ments of death in detail. It says the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner received two syringes labeled "po- tassium chloride," but that the vials used to fill the sy- ringes were labeled "single dose Potassium Acetate In- jection." That contradicts the of- ficial execution log, ini- tialed by a prison staffer, which says the state prop- erly used potassium chlo- ride to stop his heart, ac- cording to a copy obtained by The Associated Press. "We cannot trust Okla- homa to get it right or tell the truth," said Dale Baich, an attorney representing Oklahoma death row in- mates. "We will explore this in detail through the discovery process in the federal litigation." Fallin declined to say if she still has confidence in prisons director Robert Patton. She said she would wait until Attorney Gen- eral Scott Pruitt completes an investigation into both Warner's execution and last week's mix-up. "I want to let the attor- ney general do his job first, tell us what's factual and what's not, give us the in- formation, and then we'll make a judgment then," Fallin told the AP. Patton oversaw both Warner's execution and the April 2014 lethal in- jection of Clayton Lockett, who writhed on the gur- ney, moaned and pulled up from his restraints. Warner had been sched- uled to die the same night, but his death was delayed for months after Lockett's execution went awry. The next inmate sched- uled to die, Richard Glos- sip, came within hours of his lethal injections last week before prison offi- cials informed the gover- nor that they had received potassium acetate instead of potassium chloride from a pharmacist, whose iden- tity is shielded by state law. Potassium chloride, which stops the heart, is the final drug in the state's three-drug protocol, fol- lowing the application of a sedative, midazolam; and a paralytic, rocuronium bro- mide, which prevents nor- mal breathing. Report: Oklahoma used wrong drug in execution INVESTIGATION OKLAHOMA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE Charles Warner was executed for the 1997 killing of his roommate's 11-month-old daughter. JOHN LOCHER — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Students Sharon Kirkham, le , and Kristapher Yates visit a memorial at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore. FacebookPage 4,429fans +23 this week .. and growing, every week! 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