14-Year-Old Boy Killed in Oregon School Shooting; Gun Debate Reignited
COSTELLO: A soccer player, a great friend, is how those that knew Emilio Hoffman describe him. Hoffman, a 14-year-old freshman, was shot and killed yesterday at Reynolds High School outside of Portland, Oregon. He's the latest victim of school violence. All started yesterday when a lone killer armed with an assault rifle opened fire in a gym locker room, killing Hoffman. Todd Rispler, a PE teacher, was also injured. He was grazed by a bullet but he is expected to be OK. Close to 3,000 students took cover in their classrooms, the doors locked and the lights turned off, as SWAT teams moved in.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Reynolds High School, heard shots fired in the locker room. At least one person down.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need the robot inside. We've got a suspect down on the toilet where we cannot see him.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We heard Mr. Dixon come over the intercom and say this is no the a drill. We need to go into lockdown right now.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was carrying a gun running after one of our teachers.</s>COSTELLO: The gunman was found dead inside the school. Sources telling CNN he likely shot himself. And while police are not identifying him, they do say he was a student at the school. This latest incident of gun violence in our schools have lit a huge fire under the gun debate again. By one count, there have been 74 school shootings since the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012. President Obama vented his frustrations, calling gun violence off the charts and that we should all be ashamed.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The United States does not have a monopoly on crazy people. It's not the only country that has psychosis. Yet, we kill each other these mass shootings at rates that are exponentially higher than any place else. Well, what's the difference? The difference is that these guys can stack up a bunch of ammunition in their houses and that's sort of par for the course. So the country has to do some soul searching about this. This is becoming the norm.</s>COSTELLO: Cliff Schecter, who wrote an op-ed for "The Daily Beast" takes it a step farther, blaming the NRA. He writes in "The Daily Beast" column, quote: "We are reaping what they have sowed. Their rhetoric, their firearms policies, their followers. If we want to change things, it starts with not sugar-coating or ignoring the treasonous and murderous role played by the leaders of the NRA, but by acknowledging it and taking them on every day." Well, let's talk about that because those are strong words. Joining me now is Cliff Schecter. Welcome. Those are tough words. Some might say too tough. Can you hear me, Cliff? Well, we don't have audio, do we? Shall we take a break and come back? All right. We're going to go to break and come back with more right after this. I apologize.