Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal continued his criticism of the pro-gun-control father of the Umpqua Community College mass shooter, saying he has “no right” to be lecturing the rest of the country on responsibility.
“I absolutely believe he has no right to be lecturing the rest of us,” Mr. Jindal said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, The Hill reported. “Look, gun control is not going to solve this.”
The Republican presidential candidate criticized Ian Mercer for not being involved in his son’s life. Christopher Harper-Mercer fatally shot nine people and wounded several others before killing himself at the Roseburg, Oregon, college.
“He, by his own admission, didn’t know how his son got those guns, didn’t know how many guns his son had, by his own admission wasn’t involved in his son’s life, hadn’t been communicating with him since he was living with his mother,” Mr. Jindal said. “He doesn’t need to be lecturing us on gun control.”
Last week, Mr. Jindal called Mr. Mercer a “complete failure as a father” who “should be embarrassed to even show his face in public,” The Hill reported.
“Our families are a complete mess, and we have raised tens of millions of young boys who will never become real men because they have no values whatsoever, they have no truth in their lives and they have no regard for common decency,” Mr. Jindal said.
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“Meanwhile, the shallow and simple-minded liberals will continue to blame pieces of hardware for the problem,” he said. “And they will long for the days before firearms were invented.”
Ian Mercer has said he has no idea how his 26-year-old managed to stockpile an arsenal in the apartment he shared with his mother. His son was packing six weapons, which were purchased legally, five extra magazines of ammo and a steel plate-fitting flak jacket at the time of the shooting on Oct. 1.
“We talk about gun laws. We talk about gun control,” the father told CNN two days after the shooting. “Every time something like this happens, they talk about it and nothing gets done. I’m not trying to say that that’s to blame for what happened, but if Chris had not been able to get hold of 13 guns, this wouldn’t have happened.”
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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