The mother of the Oregon mass murderer stockpiled firearms because she feared stricter gun laws — and shopped around for a shooting range that would let her and her son fire away without supervision, the Daily News has learned.
Laurel Harper, a nurse who shared an apartment with her son Chris Harper Mercer, spoke openly about her love of guns, said the mother of one of her patients.
"She said she had multiple guns and believed wholeheartedly in the Second Amendment and wanted to get all the guns she could before someone outlawed them," Shelly Steele, who hired Harper to provide care for her sickly teenage son, told The News in an exclusive interview Saturday.
"My husband is an avid hunter and former military, so she would talk to him about it all the time, how she liked to take her son shooting," Steele said.
Harper told Steele she tried a shooting range close to the Umpqua Community College campus but didn’t like it “because it wasn’t very private.”
“You needed to have a range master with you, and she didn't like anyone watching,” said Steele, who lives in Winston, Oregon.
“She wanted more privacy.”
So Harper found a better match in a gun club in Myrtle Creek, Steele said.
"He liked to do it with her," she said, referring to Chris.
"She told my husband she just purchased some new guns a few weeks ago and took him shooting. I thought the whole situation was very strange. If you know your son has mental health issues, do you encourage a fascination with guns?"
Steele spoke out two days after Harper’s heavily-armed son murdered eight students and their instructor before fatally shooting himself.
Steele said Harper told her that Chris was “sickly” as a child, had “mental problems” growing up and suffered from Asperger's.
“One of the reasons she moved up to Oregon was to get away from California and give him more space and peace and quiet,” she said.
JOSH EDELSON/AFP/Getty ImagesHarper was a dedicated nurse but had odd personality quirks, Steele said.
When Harper's nursing agency held a meeting in Steele's house three weeks ago with the other nurses assigned to the family, the agency asked Harper to take a photo for a badge, but she refused.
“The four other nurses took photos, but she refused,” Steele said. “She said she didn't like her picture taken and that was it. They told her it might help to identify her in case of an emergency, and she said, 'All I need is my stethoscope.’”
"She was a wonderful nurse in that she was very detail oriented,” Steele added. “But she was always very edgy.”
Steele hasn't spoken to Harper since her son’s rampage.
"It's very frightening,” Steele said. “I'm so glad she never brought him over here.”