In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, Roseburg pastor Randy Scroggins answers those who have made the bizarre claim that the shooting that left nine victims dead and nine injured is a fake.
One of the worst aspects of the breakdown in public trust, in both the media and politicians, is that people across the political spectrum are ready to believe the strangest, most far-fetched stories, without a shred of real evidence. Combine that distrust of institutions with the speed of social media and you have untrue and hurtful ideas spreading almost instantly.
Although it’s hard to believe, almost immediately after the UCC shooting, the conspiracy theories began, with some claiming that it was a false flag operation to push President Obama’s gun control agenda. The idea is absurd on its face: that hundreds of people in a conservative city like Roseburg—including pro-Second Amendment Sheriff Jon Hanlin—would all play along with such an operation and that somehow nobody would break ranks and tell the truth.
No matter how strange the idea, it spread. For example, this YouTube page is full of videos with tens of thousands of views saying the shooting is fake.
The people spreading these theories don’t stop and consider the harm they are doing to grieving families.
For Pastor Scroggins, whose daughter Lacey was in the classroom, it’s not a mere intellectual exercise. He almost lost his daughter, who was only spared when blood, splattered from another victim, made the shooter believe she was already dead.
In this interview, Scroggins says he didn’t know what people were actually capable of until his son told him about the people saying the UCC shooting was fake. Scroggins’s verdict is straightforward—”disgusting”—and his plea to those who’d even think such a thing is heartfelt.
Watch Pastor Scroggins speak to the conspiracy theorists of the world: