Mother of Oregon Gunman Wrote of Keeping Firearms

Source: NY Times

In an online forum, answering a question about state gun laws several years ago, Ms. Harper took a jab at “lame states” that impose limits on keeping loaded firearms in the home, and noted that she had AR-15 and AK-47 semiautomatic rifles, along with a Glock handgun. She also indicated that her son, who lived with her, was well versed in guns, citing him as her source of information on gun laws, saying he “has much knowledge in this field.”

“I keep two full mags in my Glock case. And the ARs & AKs all have loaded mags,” Ms. Harper wrote. “No one will be ‘dropping’ by my house uninvited without acknowledgement.”

Law enforcement officials have said they recovered 14 firearms and spare ammunition magazines that were purchased legally either by Mr. Harper-Mercer, 26, or an unnamed relative. Mr. Harper-Mercer had six guns with him when he entered a classroom building last Thursday and started firing on a writing class in which he was enrolled; the rest were found in the second-floor apartment he shared with his mother.

Ms. Harper’s posts were found on Yahoo Answers, a site where she spent hours over the last 10 years, mostly answering medical questions from strangers, occasionally citing her own difficulties raising a troubled child. Her Yahoo profile had a user name of TweetyBird, accompanied by a cartoon image of a nurse. In many of her postings, she included her email address, which public records link to Ms. Harper.


Read more: http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/mother-of-oregon-gunman-wrote-of-keeping-firearms/ar-AAf84rl?ocid=spartandhp

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While I have great sympathy for a parent dealing with a special needs child, I don't know why someone would encourage a kid whose special need affects their ability to regulate their emotions to collect firearms. Most of the kids in my college computer science class seemed to be somewhere on the spectrum, but they grew up to obsess about computers. But encouraging an interest in guns?

When the right wing talks about second amendment remedies (remember Sharron Angle in 2010?), these killings illustrate the consequences of individuals availing themselves of this so-called remedy. Christopher Dorner in Los Angeles may have had a beef about his ability to be promoted as a cop, but once he availed himself of his "second amendment remedy" to seek redress for the wrongs he believed had been visited upon, he became a murderer. The irony is the right responds as Trump did recently by saying that solution is to distribute even more guns to the populace.