Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin told reporters late Thursday he refuses name the gunman behind the shooting rampage at Oregon’s Umpqua Community College that left 10 people dead and seven others injured. “I will not give him the credit he probably sought prior to this horrific act of cowardice,” Hanlin said. “You will never hear me mention his name.” Hanlin added that the official identity will come from the medical examiner. Police earlier identified the shooter as 26-year-old Chris Harper-Mercer.
In 2013, Hanlin wrote a letter to Vice President Joe Biden lobbying against gun control. “Gun control is not the answer to preventing heinous crimes like school shootings,” he wrote. Hanlin vowed he would refuse to enforce or allow the enforcement of any federal gun control, calling it “unconstitutional” and an “insult to the American people.”