Latasha Dyer said her daughter was playing outside when the boy asked to see her puppy. Little McKayla said "no" and shortly after was shot in the chest. Jefferson County Sheriff GW "Bud" McCoig said the boy has been charged with first degree murder and was being held in a juvenile detention centre.
Also yesterday, a law enforcement official said the gunman who executed nine people at an Oregon community college before killing himself ranted in a manifesto about not having a girlfriend and that everyone else was crazy. The official also said the mother of 26-year-old gunman Christopher Harper-Mercer had told investigators he was struggling with mental health issues.
According to the official, Harper-Mercer wrote something to the effect of: "Other people think I'm crazy, but I'm not. I'm the sane one."
President Barack Obama said he would travel to Oregon to visit victims' families.
Tackling head-on one of the most divisive issues in American politics, Clinton issued a fact sheet that said the country could not "accept as normal" 30,000 gun deaths every year. "As a nation we can no longer allow guns to fall into the hands of domestic abusers, other violent criminals and the seriously mentally ill. It is a rebuke to the families that have lost loved ones, to the communities that are plagued by gun violence, and to this nation that we love."
The plan would extend federal laws on background checks to cover sales by unlicensed dealers online and at gun shows, and between anonymous strangers - sales that make up between 20 and 40 per cent of all firearm purchases.
It would also close the "Charleston loophole" that allows retailers to sell a weapon despite incomplete background checks, as happened with Dylann Roof, the man charged in the Charleston church shooting. Clinton would also repeal legislation that protects gunmakers and retailers from being sued for negligence.
Her plan also marks an effort by the Clinton campaign to stake out liberal ground against Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator who is her closest rival for the nomination.
Why would Hillary Clinton succeed where Barack Obama has failed?
Every President has to pick his or her battles: sweeping promises are made during election campaigns, but once in power ambition is curtailed by Washington politics. Obama, though an advocate of gun reform, initially chose not to expend hard-earned political capital on the issue, focusing instead on healthcare reform, the financial crises and other issues that were priorities for voters at the time of his election. In an era of deeply divisive party politics - in which the Republicans have sought to destroy almost every initiative that has the President's approval - nothing short of the most forceful lobbying from the White House could bring change. That was clear in 2013, when even a much-truncated bill calling for background checks on those wanting to own a gun died on the Senate floor. Obama has sought executive action designed to reduce gun violence, but without being able to push meaningful legislation through Congress, the White House has been effectively reduced to the role of bystander to mass murders. Clinton has chosen to make gun control a central part of her campaign. The issue is much more prominent now than during Obama's initial run for office. The question remains how much political capital she will choose to expend if she is voted in.
- Telegraph Group Ltd, AFP, AP
