by Y4NK33 PL4N3T » October 6th, 2015, 1:33 am
Mother of Oregon Gunman Wrote of Keeping Firearms
In a series of online postings over a decade, the mother of the gunman who opened fire on classmates at Umpqua Community College in Oregon said she kept numerous firearms in her home and opened up about her difficulties raising a troubled son who used to bang his head against the wall.
All the while the mother, Laurel Margaret Harper, expressed hope that her son, Christopher Harper-Mercer, could lead a successful life in finance or as a filmmaker. Instead, Mr. Harper-Mercer, 26, took his own life after shooting nine others to death and wounding several others during a campus rampage last week.
Answering a question about state gun laws several years ago,Ms. Harper, a registered nurse, took a jab at “lame states” that impose limits on keeping loaded firearms in the home, and noted that she had AR-15 and AK-47 semiautomatic rifles, along with a Glock handgun. She also indicated that her son, who lived with her, was well versed in guns, citing him as her source of information on gun laws, saying he “has much knowledge in this field.”
“I keep two full mags in my Glock case. And the ARs & AKs all have loaded mags,” Ms. Harper wrote. “No one will be ‘dropping’ by my house uninvited without acknowledgement.”
The posts were found on Yahoo Answers, a site where Ms. Harper spent hours over the last 10 years, mostly answering medical questions from strangers, occasionally citing her own difficulties raising a troubled child. Her Yahoo profile had a user name of TweetyBird, accompanied by a cartoon image of a nurse. In many of her postings, she included her email address, which public records link to Ms. Harper.
Ms. Harper did not respond to messages seeking comment.
Law enforcement officials have said they recovered 14 firearms and spare ammunition magazines that were purchased legally either by Mr. Harper-Mercer or an unnamed relative. Mr. Harper-Mercer had six guns with him when he entered a classroom building and started firing on a creative writing class in which he was enrolled; he took his own life after exchanging fire with the police.
Ms. Harper and Christopher’s father, Ian Mercer of Tarzana, Calif., divorced in 2006 and were separated years earlier; Mr. Mercer told CNN last week that he thought the nation should change its gun laws, saying the massacre “would not have happened” if his son had not been able to buy so many handguns and rifles.
“How was he able to compile that kind of arsenal?” Mr. Mercer said in an interview with CNN. He said he had no idea that his son owned more than a dozen firearms.
Neighbors have said that Ms. Harper and her son would go to shooting ranges together, something Ms. Harper seemed to confirm in one of her online posts. She talked about the importance of firearms safety and said she learned a lot through target shooting, expressing little patience with unprepared gun owners: “When I’m at the range, I cringe every time the ‘wannabes’ show up.”
In addition to talking about guns, Ms. Harper, 64, was a prolific commenter in online forums dealing with medical issues, frequently answering questions from strangers with a tone of empathy and concern. She acknowledged having expertise in dealing with autism, saying that both she and her son — whom she never identified by name — had Asperger’s syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder.
Consoling another parent seeking help with disruptive behavior by their autistic child, Ms. Harper shared that her own son “was, among other things, a head-banger” when he was younger who was initially misdiagnosed with attention deficit disorder. But over time, he had learned to cope and was doing better, she wrote: “I was in your shoes and now my son’s in college.”
She expressed frustration with people who questioned how successful a person with autism could be, noting: “I have Asperger’s and I didn’t do so bad. Wasn’t easy (understatement) but it can be done.” She also said she had “dealt with it on a daily basis for years and years” because of her son, who she said was progressing well.
“He’s no babbling idiot nor is his life worthless,” Ms. Harper wrote. “He’s very intelligent and is working on a career in filmmaking. My 18 years worth of experience with and knowledge about Asperger’s syndrome is paying off.”
One piece of advice she had for a parent with an autistic infant was to start reading to the child as soon as possible and use expressive gestures. An online posting from six years ago included the unlikely revelation that she used to read to her son a book by Donald J. Trump, the real estate mogul now running for president, who recently suggested that childhood vaccines cause autism — a theory Ms. Harper dismisses in her postings.
“Fact: Before my son was even born, I was reading out loud to him from Donald Trump’s ‘The Art of the Deal,’” she wrote. “And as for the ‘gesture effect,’ I was practically a mime. And now my son invests in the stock market along with me, turns a profit and is working on a degree in finance. His language and reading skills are phenomenal. I tell you this because it’s not too late for you to start helping your daughter.”
It is not clear where — or if — Mr. Harper-Mercer had pursued such a degree. Some neighbors in California said they thought he had attended a local community college there. Both son and mother moved to Oregon about two years ago; Mr. Mercer said he had not seen either of them since then.
Typical dumb ass gun luvin Repuke retard, mother of the year candidate. It's no wonder why the husband left her stupid ass.