In Wake Of Oregon Rampage, Local Mom Echoes President Obama's Plea For Tougher Laws
NORTHRIDGE (CBSLA.com) — In the wake of the shooting rampage Thursday in Oregon, President Barack Obama sounded frustrated and angry when he called for tougher gun control laws.
CBS2's Serene Branson says a local mother echoed that frustration and anger.
Loren Lieb's son Josh was shot during a mass shooting at the North Valley Jewish Community Center in 1999 when he was 6.
"You think your kids are going to school, and they're going to come home, and they don't," says Lieb.
She is one of the lucky ones. Her son survived his attack.
Even though her son survived. a day like Thursday brings up and stirs up very painful memories.
"The phones that are ringing and nobody can answer them. ... It's just terrible," Lieb says.
As part of the Brady Campaign to prevent gun violence, Lieb, the mother of two, hosts monthly meetings at her home. One such meeting was scheduled for Thursday.
"Just how angry we are nothing gets done," said one meeting member.
Branson reports the assembled group has a lot to discuss.
"We need to focus our attention on how did he do it, not why did he do it" says Lieb. "If he didn't get his hands on a gun, he couldn't have done it."
According to a gun control advocacy group, the Oregon shooting is the 264th mass shooting in the United States in 2015, shootings in which at least four people are shot and wounded, including the gunman.
There's been one pretty much every day in the calendar year.
Obama asked news organizations to tally up the number of people killed in terrorist attacks and compare it to the much larger number of people killed by gun violence.
"This is political choice that we make," Obama said, "to allow this to happen every few months in America."
Lieb says in her work, polls show that even responsible gun owners on both sides of the political aisle favor guns not getting into the wrong hands.
"We don't have a comprehensive, rational national firearm policy check on every sale," she says. "What we need is a [background] check for every sale."
Branson asked the NRA for comment but did not hear back.