'It's my son's birthday,' army vet

hero shot seven times pleaded with

Oregon shooter
Chris Mintz, who tried to prevent the gunman from entering a classroom by
blocking the door, was shot seven times despite pleas that it was his son
Tyrik's sixth birthday. And Tyrik's mother believes more guns would have
helped.
Jayme Skinner sat on the veranda of her clapboard bungalow and hugged her knees
close to her chest, exhausted.
Twenty four hours previously, the father of her child, Chris Mintz, 30, had been shot
in the back, abdomen, hands and hip by Chris Harper-Mercer, the British-born
Oregon school gunman. Both his legs were broken during a rampage that killed nine
students.
But, after nine hours of surgery on Thursday evening, Mr Mintz was recovering in
hospital, and lucky to be alive. And Miss Skinner, 34, was calling for change.
If we had more guns, this wouldnt be happening, she said, shaking her head. We
need to be able to protect ourselves.
Her logic may sound strange, given that there have been 293 mass shootings in the
US this year more shootings, in fact, than days.

Jayme Skinner outside her bungalow Photo: Harriet Alexander/The Telegraph

But it is one which is shared by all the top Republican presidential candidates.
Donald Trump, the presidential front-runner, on Friday night said stricter gun control
would not work because people are going to slip through the cracks while Ben
Carson said tighter laws would not stop crazies.
Jeb Bush also spoke out, using the somewhat ill-advised phrase "stuff
happens" - which was seized upon on social media.
"Look, stuff happens, and the impulse is to do something - and it's not always the
right thing to do," he said.
And their arguments resonate deeply through the valley in which Roseburg sits - a
town of 22,000 people 180 miles south of Portland, nestled beside the Umpqua river
and beneath the richly-forested Callahan Mountains. The town was built around
timber, and huge trucks bearing felled trunks thunder through. The people are
hunters, shooters, fishermen and survivors.
President Barack Obamas angry and exasperated address to the nationon
Thursday had little impact on them.
"Somehow, this has become routine, he said. The reporting is routine. My response
here at this podium ends up being routine. We become numb to this.

Chris Mintz Photo: Facebook

We talked about this after Columbine and Blacksburg, after Tucson, after Newtown,
after Aurora, after Charleston, he said, noting that there is about one gun for every
man, woman and child in the United States.
"How can you make the argument with a straight face that more guns will make us
safer?"
But in Roseburg, about as far geographically and culturally as it is possible to get
from Washington, that was indeed the argument that was being made.
Harper-Mercer, an IRA and Nazi-obsessed loner who specifically targeted
Christians, could have been stopped, people in Roseburg believe.

Mr Mintz recovering in hospital Photo: Facebook

Born to a British father, Ian Mercer, and American mother, Lauren Harper, he
moved to the US as a young boy. Initially he lived in California, where until 2009 he
attended the Switzer Learning Center, which caters for pupils with special needs

ranging from learning disabilities and health problems to autism and Asperger's
Syndrome. Two years later he moved with his mother, by then divorced from Mr
Mercer, to Oregon.
And Harper-Mercer was a deeply troubled man. In a note written shortly before the
shooting, the 26-year-old wrote that he would be "welcomed in Hell and embraced by
the devil" and described being depressed, as well as lamenting the fact he had no
girlfriend.
On Thursday morning he arrived at the school where he was a pupil, entering
Snyder Hall where English and creative writing classes were being held
and killing eight pupils and a teacher.
Among them was Jason Johnson, 34 - proud to be a Christian, his family said in a
statement on Friday night. Quinn Cooper, 18, loved dancing and acting, and was
murdered on his fourth day at school.

Quinn Cooper Photo: Portland Police

The Eibel family simply stated: We have been trying to figure out how to tell
everyone how amazing Lucas was but that would take 18 years.
On Saturday Harper-Mercer's death was ruled a suicide by the coroner.

Remarkably, not one of the families in this deeply Republican rural region used their
statements to call for gun control - as many did after the Sandy Hook school
shooting.
Indeed, the Cooper family even warned against gun control.
"We are hearing so many people talk about gun control and taking people's guns
away," they said. "If the public couldn't have guns it wouldn't help since sick people
like this will always be able to get their hands on a gun(s).
"We need to be able to protect ourselves as a community and as a nation. Please
don't let this horrible act of insanity become about who should or shouldn't have a
gun."
Neither did the governor call for stricter laws.
"Those are conversations for the days ahead," said Kate Brown, the Democrat ruler
of Oregon. "Right now I'm focused, along with Oregonians across the state, on
supporting the community."
Indeed, John Hanlin, the sheriff of Douglas County, has long been known as a
staunch supporter of the right to bear arms, and after the Sandy Hook massacre was
one of hundreds of sheriffs around the country to vow to stand against new gun
control legislation. In a January 2013, letter to Joe Biden, the vice president, he
wrote, "Gun control is NOT the answer to preventing heinous crimes like school
shootings."
Behind the counter of his vast gun emporium, Tom felt that was quite right.
Its idiotic to talk about banning guns, he said. There are way more deaths from
cars but we dont try to outlaw them.
And just look at China they use knives to kill dozens of people. There will always
be madmen, and the answer is to have more guns to keep us safe.
His shop, Waldrons Outdoor Sports, was indeed a temple to guns.
Beneath a giant stuffed bear rearing on its hind legs he sold all manner of hand
guns, rifles, bows and arrows and camouflage clothing. Petite Ruger pistols were
popular with the ladies, he said perfect for their handbags. Heads of moose, elk
and deer decorated the walls, beside wolf pelts, and row upon row of ammunition.

The interior of Waldron's Outdoor Sports Photo: Harriet Alexander/The Telegraph

Harper-Mercer had 14 legally-held guns six on him when he died, and eight at the
flower-filled flat he shared with his mother a short distance away. Some neighbours
reported regularly seeing the two of them coming and going from the second-floor
chalet apartment with black gun cases. The 26-year-old was said to enjoy target
shooting.
On Saturday, his father said he "has to have some kind of issue" with his mental
health to have killed nine people execution-style and wondered how he amassed
such a large cache of weapons.

"How on earth could he compile 13 guns?", Ian Mercer told CNN during a televised
interview.
Back at the gun store, Tom said: 9/11 changed America in many ways, but our love
of guns and hunting runs deep, adding that Harper-Mercer did not buy the guns
from him. Wal Mart is the biggest retailer of guns in America, he said, and handguns
can be picked up for as little as $300, provided you have proof of residency and a
Federal background check.
The problem is not lawful gun owners. And its is terribly sad. But its the price of our
freedom.
Back on the veranda at the foot of the Callaghans, Miss Skinner - despite Mr Mintzs
terrible injuries - agreed.
Gun control is just not the answer, she said, speaking to The Sunday Telegraph in
her only British interview. We cant allow fear to take away our logic.
Mr Mintz, a former marine who served in Iraq, was in his second year studying to
become a fitness trainer at Umpqua Community College. He was shot while trying to
prevent Harper-Mercer entering the classroom, and as he lay on the floor told the
gunman: Dont shoot me its my sons sixth birthday today.
A crowd-funding site set up to raise money for his medical costs had raised
almost $600,000 in its first 24 hours smashing its target of $10,000 in minutes.
Im absolutely not surprised he got involved, said Miss Skinner, who herself works
as an armed guard and tactical weapons trainer. Mr Mintz moved from his native
North Carolina to be with her. Its who he is.
She said that as soon as a friend called to say there was a shooting, and Mr Mintz
didnt answer his phone, she knew he would be in the thick of it. She went straight to
the hospital, and was by his side as he came round from the almost ten hours of
surgery.
Hes tough. Hes going to be OK.
Questions of security at the college had been raised earlier this year, with the
campus divided on whether to bring in armed guards. Roseburg had suffered a
college shooting before in 2006 although no one was killed.

We most definitely need armed guards at our schools, said Miss Skinner. We need
to make sure we can protect ourselves. Why have people there as guards to protects
our security, when they cant do it properly? We are allowing harm to come to people
who are there trying to better themselves.
Guns, she said, are simply a tool which can be misused if they fall into the wrong
hands. Better, she said, to make sure they were liberally carried among correctlytrained people. It was all about protection.
You wouldnt take the antlers from the antelope to stop it being eaten by the lion.