Oregon gunman wrote 'I'm the sane one'

In the 1980s hit British-American psychological horror movie ‘The Shining’, a character goes in a trance and writes ‘REDRUM‘ – that reads MURDER when held to a mirror – everywhere.

While the gunmen at the Oregon community college didn’t write those words, he did write ‘I’m the sane one’ before going on a killing spree with his gun. The 26-year-old gunman, Christopher Harper-Mercer, killed ten people on that fateful day in Oregon including himself.

Harper-Mercer had also called everyone ‘crazy’ in his writings, according to a law enforcement official. He wrote: “Other people think I’m crazy, but I’m not. I’m the sane one,” the official said.

According to the official, the mother of the gunman had revealed to investigators that he had serious mental issues and was suffering from an Asperger syndrome, considered to be on the high-functioning end of the autism spectrum.

Ian Mercer, father of the gunman, told CNN that the incident would never have occurred if his son did not had access to 14 guns. Harper-Mercer had obtained all the guns legally from a federally licensed firearms dealer. Mercer said that he had never held a gun and his philosophy is “I’m a great believer (in) you don’t buy guns, don’t buy guns, you don’t buy guns.”

A memorial is being held on the driveway leading to Snyder Hall where Harper-Mercer had opened fire. Apart from the nine individuals including Harper-Mercer that had died during the shootout, nine other were seriously injured.

Classes will not resume at the Umpqua Community College until next week. However, some students visited the campus to pick up their belongings. “I needed to be here,” student Madysen Sanchez said. “I needed to come and see my friends, make sure they’re OK.”

A group of eight people held hands and bowed heads in prayer in front of the building. One of the injured students was also there at the campus to participate in the grieving process, according to college President Rita Cavin.

Others reached out to professional groups to discuss their grief and trauma over the incident. “It was hard not to focus on Snyder Hall,” student Joel Mitchell said. “When we got back, I think a lot of people were probably … looking at it, checking it out, seeing what it looked like.”

Chaplain Russell Wilson, who had been on campus during the shooting said that he was going through the grieving process himself. The incident has touched everyone in the community. They are either reeling from the incident or helping others with the healing process.

After the incident, President Obama showed his exasperation at repeated mass shootings in the US and called for stricter gun laws. However, the question remains: is strict gun law the right solution to growing violence in the US? This is another debate that has divided most Americans into two factions. We will just have to wait and see what will be the answer to this growing problem of gun control in the US.