MYTHS: Good guys with a gun don’t stop bad guys with a gun, and gun-free zones prevent gun violence.
BEND, Ore. — These two false propaganda narratives pushed by billionaire- and NGO-backed gun control groups were yet again proven to be false during the tragic events that unfolded during a school shooting in Bend, Oregon, on October 15, resulting in the death of three children and one teacher, and the injury of two others.
The following are the known facts based upon current reporting:
- At approximately 12:58 p.m., 16-year-old Griffin J. John II, a former special-education student at Silver Rail Elementary School, approached the campus on foot, threw a shotgun over a fence, and climbed over onto school property.
- A driver of a red Toyota pickup truck witnessed the action, confronted the teen, and was fired upon multiple times. The driver was uninjured and called 911.
- A second driver, 36-year-old Kaylub Giamanco, the father of two children who attend the school, also witnessed the shots fired at the red pickup truck. Mr. Giamanco drove into the school parking lot, retrieved a .40-caliber pistol from his vehicle, and followed the teen.
- The teen walked along the building and forced entry by firing multiple rounds through the glass panes of locked double doors on the playground side, then entered a special-education classroom immediately inside and fired as many as 15 rounds, killing three children ages 5, 8, and 11, as well as a 25-year-old teacher. Additionally, the shooter critically injured a 7-year-old student and wounded a 54-year-old educational assistant.
- A teacher in the classroom threw her cellphone at the teen, tackled him, and struggled to take the shotgun, an action that Police Chief Mike Krantz said “almost certainly helped avoid more bloodshed.” The teacher was uninjured.
- Giamanco entered the classroom during the struggle and shot the teen multiple times with the .40-caliber pistol, killing him.
According to police, the firearm used by the teen was a Maverick 88 pump-action, 12-gauge shotgun which had been purchased by his mother. The deceased shooter was found with about 44 remaining rounds of 12-gauge ammunition on his person or in a backpack.
The first officers on the scene arrived at approximately 1:02 p.m. after Mr. Giamanco killed the shooter, with the sequence from the first 911 call to the end of the shooting lasting roughly three minutes.
Police are still investigating the motive.
Silver Rail Elementary School in the Bend-La Pine Schools district was a gun-free zone under both Oregon state law and district policy. ORS 166.370 makes it a Class C felony to intentionally possess a loaded or unloaded firearm while in or on a public building, but the statute normally exempts concealed handgun licensees. In December of 2021, the Bend-La Pine Schools adopted a board policy withdrawing that exemption on its campuses, which leaves a licensee who carries onto school grounds facing a Class A misdemeanor instead of no charge at all.
Mr. Giamanco’s decision to go in anyway almost certainly resulted in the saving of lives, according to Chief Krantz, who stated, “The quick thinking to observe and to then park and follow someone into the school, is incredible – undoubtedly saved people.”
However, Mr. Giamanco could also be charged with breaking state law and district policy, setting up a quandary for law-abiding citizens who must choose between actions that have legal and moral implications.
The tragic shooting further cements three well-known facts:
- Police almost never prevent a crime from happening; they show up during or after in the best-case scenarios.
- An armed citizen’s intervention limited what would certainly have been an even worse tragedy.
- Criminals are not deterred by gun-free zone signage or statutes.
