Jindal calls Oregon shooter's father a 'complete failure'

BATON ROUGE, La., Oct. 7 (UPI) -- Republican presidential candidate and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said the father of the man accused of killing nine people at an Oregon college is "a complete failure."

Jindal vented his opinion Tuesday about the mass shooting which took place last week at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore. Chris Harper Mercer, 26, is accused of killing nine people and injuring nine others prior to shooting and killing himself. Ian Mercer, Chris' father, called for tougher gun restrictions following the shooting.

"Another week, another mass shooting, another press conference by the president lecturing us on the need for gun control," Jindal said.

He said "the root cause" of acts such as Mercer's rampage is "a symptom of deep and serious cultural decay."

Part of that decay includes poor parenting and a violent popular culture but excludes ineffective gun laws, he said. Jindal called Mercer's father a "complete failure" and said that people "devalue human life" and that the rupture of traditional families in the United States is facilitating the development of mass killers.

Jindal also spoke of television shows and movies that "feature a continuous stream of grotesque killing" and music that promotes "evil" and "the degradation of women." He said boys who have not had a father figure in their lives are typically the ones who commit crimes like the one in Oregon. He also criticized the father's surprise at learning his son even had guns.

Jindal went on to criticize Democrats' calls for tougher gun laws, calling them "shallow and simple-minded." President Barack Obama also vowed to "politicize" gun violence.

Jindal said the situation surrounding gun laws in the United States "is not nearly as complicated as we pretend."