Being a Roseburg resident now for more than 8 years, it was more than a shock to see a mass shooting occur in our small town. Sadly though I knew right from hearing of the event, minutes after it happened, that the community response was going to be mixed, and in many ways, unable to be understood by those looking in from outside.
In the aftermath, this reaction was best displayed in the days leading up to and the day of President Obama's visit to console the families of the victims. Within a few hours of his press conference, local people were criticizing him for politicizing the tragedy and 'standing on the corpses of our loved ones'. Yes that was from one of the initial locals, publishers of a right wing rag that are known for being media whores whose publication offers editorial space to moon landing hoaxers, birthers and every shade of conspiracy theorist. They had a son on campus at the time of the shooting so of course were pumping their 'on the spot' happenings to Fox. They even made O'Reilly when the President announced he was coming. Evil, despicable hate-mongers.
So, after the White House announced that the President would make a diversion from his west coast trip, and visit the families of the tragedy, there was a shit storm across social media, the mostly conservative, gun-toting, hunting simpletons across the state. 'Not Welcome' plus your selection of hate speech or anti-Obama epithet/screed ensued.
One of these hate merchants, who has recently been selected as the Republican candidate for an Oregon House seat was one of the first to actually get the ball rolling, and this is where my story starts - with the man primarilu responsible for making my grieving town a laughing stock to sensible, sane, balanced individuals.
Casey Runyan established a Facebook page that within a few short hours had issued over 70,000 invites and been liked by more than 7,500 people who claimed they were fully in support of Runyan and were coming to Roseburg to protest the President.
Picked up by national media and used in countless blogs, many on this site, to illustrate how backward Roseburg is, except when President Obama arrived there were by best counts only about 300 protesters, and most of those were from out of town.
But there was so much more that the media overlooked. Casey Runyan is not a Roseburg resident. He isn't even an Oregonian. Originally from Ogemaw County, Michigan it makes his whole facade to be specious.
What Casey Runyan has also failed to tell people is that he is actually a convicted violent felon, which according to Oregon Law 166.270 precludes him from owning, possessing or even carrying a firearm for 15 years after his crime. He pled guilty and served 8 months for the assault of his mother's boyfriend, and his mother. Nice guy.
Casey Runyan a darling of the Patrick Henry Society won the Republican primary for House District 9 in Southern Oregon by defeating Coos County Republican Party Chairman Jason Payne by a handful of votes. During the campaign Runyan was very careful in hiding his criminal past. One has to ask how these kinds of things were never asked in the application process, or if they were, how Runyan lied to conceal them.
Recently, Runyan's cloudy past was finally revealed and the local Republican heads determined they no longer wanted to support him because of this. Who are these Republican heads who seem sane you ask? House Republican Leader Mike McLane and Oregon Republican Party Chairman Art Robinson. Yes, THAT Art Robinson. If Art thinks Runyan is too much of a dangerous whackjob to support, you know he must be out there.
So what I would like others to do is call our local Sheriff's Office because we all know how well beloved our Sheriff John Hanlin is, and ask that are deputies do their job, after all preventing criminals from possessing firearms is exactly what Runyan and his ilk claim they want to happen because Obama's gun control is a further restriction of their prized liberty.