Why Angrily Obama Calls For Action As 10 Dead In School Massacre,Blasted Congress For Failure To Act In The Face Of Killings

A visibly angry President Barack Obama has made an impassioned plea for gun control after a shooting at an Oregon college left 10 dead and seven wounded, saying such tragedies had become "routine".

In the close-knit community of Roseburg, large crowds turned out for a candlelight vigil for the victims of Thursday's killing spree at Umpqua Community College, which ended with the assailant dying during a shootout with police. "Somehow this has become routine," Obama said of the attack, as he blasted Congress for its failure to act in the face of such killings.

"We've become numb to this... It cannot be this easy for somebody who wants to inflict harm on other people to get his or her hands on a gun." "Prayers are not enough," the stony-faced president said. "We can actually do something about it, but we're going to have to change our laws."

Four people injured in Oakland shooting

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- Four people are injured after a shooting on 37th Avenue and International Boulevard in Oakland.

The shooting happened about an hour ago and police were still on the scene late Wednesday night.

Two men and two women were shot.

It was learned one of the victim's injuries are life-threatening.

3 Dead in Shooting at US Shopping Mall

Police in the eastern U.S. state of Maryland say three people were killed in a shooting Saturday at a shopping mall, including the suspected gunman, who appeared to have killed himself.

The mall in the Baltimore suburb of Columbia, Maryland, is just under 50 kilometers north of Washington.

Authorities say they were alerted to the shooting by an emergency phone call in the late morning.

Howard County Police Chief Bill McMahon told a news conference the shooting occurred outside of a store on the upper level of the Mall of Columbia near the food court. He said the two people killed by the shooter were employees of the store, one male and one female, both in their 20s.

Media reports have indicated the shooting may have been a domestic incident. McMahon said authorities have no knowledge of that but are investigating. He said the suspect used a shotgun and had a "large amount" of ammunition. Five people were injured, but only one is reported to have suffered a gunshot wound.

Moe Moe Htun, an employee with Voice of America's English Web desk, was at a Starbuck's in the mall with her husband when the shooting took place.

"I heard bang, bang, bang, you know, very, very loudly, three times, and I thought, 'Oh, you know, it's from the construction,' because there's construction going on in that parking lot," she said. "So it was really, really very loud, and then it sounded like it came just across from where I was standing in Starbuck's in the mall. So then, just a few seconds later, there is a lady, and then she was running and then screaming 'someone is shooting!'"

Htun, originally from Burma, which is also known as Myanmar, described a chaotic scene.

"People were so scared. You [could] see it on everybody's faces. People were just running out of the mall and grabbing the hands of their kids and just running out of the mall. People did not look back, just getting out of the mall as fast as you could."

Htun says she and her husband ran out of the mall and hid behind parked cars in case the shooter emerged outside.

"When I started running, I did not think twice, and I did not look back. I just ran, I was so frigthened."

Police were soon there to help clear people from the mall and announced on Twitter a little more than an hour after the emergency call that the shopping center was believed to be secure.

But that is little consolation to witnesses like Htun, who says she shops at the Columbia mall often.

"Now, I don't feel safe to go to the mall," she said.  "It's like wherever you go, you have to keep your eyes and ears open, and then if you hear something, just don't think twice, just run because you can be a target."

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