By Jon Herskovitz and Katie Reilly/Reuters
About a month after the 2012 Sandy Hook school shootings, Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin in Oregon posted a video on his Facebook page from conspiracy theorists who said the event might have been a hoax. A few days later, he wrote to Vice President Joe Biden, telling him to stay away from gun control.
Hanlin was thrust into the spotlight this week, when a gunman opened fire at a college classroom in Douglas County, killing 10 people and wounding several others before police shot him to death.
The sheriff from a woodlands section of Oregon quickly became a focal point of the national debate about mass killings at schools. Some criticise him for opposing measures to make it more difficult to obtain firearms, and others see him as a man of integrity standing up for the constitutional right to bear arms.
“Gun control is NOT the answer to preventing heinous crimes like school shootings,” he wrote in a letter to Vice President Joe Biden in 2013, about a month after Sandy Hook, when a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at an elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, then killed himself.
Yesterday, the sheriff told CNN: “The discussion over firearms and control of firearms will occur,” adding that he would speak on the subject later but now was not the time.
Hanlin, who has been with the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office since 1989, was elected sheriff in 2009. In 2012, he ran unopposed.
Born and raised in the Roseburg area, he attended Umpqua Community College - where the shootings took place - his official biography said. He has two sons, according to a biography by the Oregon State Sheriffs’ Association.
A hunter and fisherman, Hanlin’s views on gun ownership are similar to many other residents in the state that is sparsely populated and guarantees the right to arms.
“The people shall have the right to keep and bear arms for the defense of themselves and the state,” the state Constitution declares.
Oregon is also one of seven US states that allow concealed weapons to be carried on college campuses, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, which tracks local laws.
Supporters of such laws argue that having more guns on campus would prevent the mass shootings that have become commonplace in recent years. Opponents say such measures mean more danger for all on campus.
Hamlin was at the forefront in speaking opposition to a measure debated earlier this year in Oregon that would expand background checks on gun sales. He testified at a legislative committee in April.
“Creating more regulation and control over the transfer of firearms will only affect the honest, law-abiding majority of Oregon gun owners,” he wrote in March of this year.
The governor signed the legislation into law in May.
On his Facebook page, Hanlin shared posts in favour of gun ownership, including one from Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice presidential candidate, that said “Remember when the Colonists stood in line to register their muskets...” ...me either.”
Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin speaking to members of the media in Roseburg, Oregon, yesterday.
