Mass murderer Chris Harper-Mercer had Irish Republican Army (IRA) posters on his Myspace page, the Daily Beast has revealed.
The posters included shots of the weekly newspaper An Phoblacht, armed IRA volunteers, shooting scenes, and armed masked men.
Harper-Mercer (26) shot nine people dead according to police and injured seven at the Umpqua Community College in southern Oregon in the latest mass murder in America.
According to reports, the shooter demanded to know his victims’ religious beliefs before opening fire. Police have shed no light on his motive and continue to investigate.
The perpetrator was shot dead himself by police.
Oregon shooting: Gunman Chris Harper-Mercer 'supported the IRA' http://t.co/ZEGk6K6eFK #NINews pic.twitter.com/nxUI7Y9NGt
— Belfast Telegraph (@BelTel) October 2, 2015
Quite why he featured the IRA on his Myspace page is not known as he is not obviously an Irish American. The IRA was a paramilitary group whose goal was to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom. The IRA was responsible for more than 1700 deaths during the 30 year Northern Ireland 'Troubles.'
Harper-Mercer also described himself as a conservative Republican but also stated that he hated organized religion.
In a strongly worded statement President Obama once again appealed for action in regulating guns.
He said people had “become numb to this,” referring to mass shootings.
“And what’s become routine, of course, is the response of those who oppose any kind of common-sense gun legislation,” Obama said.
“Right now, I can imagine the press releases being cranked out. ‘We need more guns,’ they’ll argue. ‘Fewer gun-safety laws.’ ”
“Does anybody really believe that?” he asked.
This was the 45th shooting at a school in the United States in 2015. Overall it is the 294th mass shooting in the US this year, according to Shootingtracker.com. A mass shooting involved four or more people, according to their site.
Harper Mercer lived with his mother in an apartment just miles from the college. According to reports, he was born in England and moved to the United States as a young child. His parents, Ian Mercer and Laurel Margaret Harper, filed for divorce on June 6, 2006.
He also appears to have been a prolific user of the file-sharing system Bittorrent. He used several different email addresses to access and download information.
The final video uploaded from his account was the BBC’s “Surviving Sandy Hook,” a documentary about the school shooting in Newtown, CT, in 2012. Other uploads include PDFs of the occult magazine “Phenomena,” conspiracy-themed documentaries including “Lost Secrets” of the “Illuminati,” and assorted soft pornography.
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