On Thursday, October 1st, a deadly school shooting took place at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon. Umpqua, a school of over 3,000 students with the average student age 37, has been the most recent scene of school shooting terror. Reports have disclosed that the shooter  took out his concealed weapon and opened fire on a creative writing class that Thursday, killing nine and critically injuring another nine. All of the victims are  between the ages of 18 to 37. The tragedy of it all is that the shooter had been diagnosed with mental health issues and even sought treatment, but the shooting still took place.

The shooter was enrolled in both a theater and creative writing course at Umpqua, when he revealed his concealed handguns on only the third day of the semester. Multiple eyewitnesses claim that he questioned his victim’s religious beliefs before pulling the trigger. Other reports describe how he mercilessly shot the professor and several of his peers as others watched in helpless terror. One witness described how the man waited until victims begged for death until he finally shot them. Police officials arrived to the scene at 10:44, just six long minutes after the first 911 call was received; shortly thereafter, the shooter shot himself and died. After the campus had been under lock-down procedure, searches took place that revealed several weapons hidden on campus by the man. Of the six firearms found, five of those were handguns and one was a long gun. It was soon found that the gunman had “enough ammunition for a prolonged gunfight,” says one officer. Searches through his apartment revealed another eight firearms, and all were found to have been purchased legally by either himself or his relatives.

After extensive research into the gunman’s troubled past, it could easily have been predicted that he would have acted out in such a manner and most definitely should not have been in possession of a gun. The shooter attended a school for the mentally and emotionally unstable and joined the United States Army upon graduation. Just a mere two weeks after joining, he was dishonorably discharged for displaying acts of violence and aggression. After looking into his internet activity, experts found that the gunman expressed interest in other school shootings, specifically the one that took place at Sandy Hook Elementary School. He even had  uploaded a documentary about that particular shooting on one of his personal websites. Despite evidence supporting that he may be a danger to society, the shooter legally obtained his weapons, likely foregoing the little to no background checks that took place during the purchase of these guns.

For now, the hearts and condolences from people across the world go out to the victims and survivors of the Umpqua Community College shooting. Stricter measures must be put in place in order to prevent future shootings.