School shooting in Bend, Oregon
There’s been another horrific school shooting, with three young children and a teacher dead. The killer shot his way into a locked area, but was ultimately stopped by the armed father of a student, who saw him enter and followed him in.
The killer was 16-year-old John J. Griffin, who had once attended the school:
John J. Griffin II, 16, was armed with his mom’s pump-action shotgun when he opened fire inside Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend – killing three kids, ages 5, 8 and 11, and a teacher, law enforcement sources said.
The shooter also critically injured another student, 7, and teacher, 54, before a brave bystander and dad of two little girls at the school shot him dead — before police even arrived at the scene. …
The killer’s parents are cooperating with authorities, who executed a search warrant on the family’s home, taking computers and other electronic devices to sift through for possible clues to a motive behind the carnage, sources told The Post.
If the parents left the shotgun loaded and unlocked, they could be in trouble themselves. Of course, they are also dealing with the fact that their own child was a killer, and is now dead.
The armed bystander who shot the perpetrator was Kaylub Giamanco (I think “Kaylub” is an eccentric spelling of “Caleb”):
… a carpenter and father of two girls who attend Silver Rail Elementary, [who] was driving home from his break on Thursday when he heard gunfire, his brother, Kyle Giamanco, told NBC News.
Kaylub Giamanco, 36, who owns a concealed weapon, bravely pursued teen gunman John J. Griffin II into the school building’s special education room and fatally shot him, his brother described.
There’s a great deal of discussion online about restrictive gun laws in Oregon and the fact that the school was a no-gun zone. But I don’t actually think Giamanco will get into trouble in this instance, although one can’t be sure (it’s Oregon, after all).
The case illustrates, among other things, the fact that locks on doors don’t deter shootings. Locks and/or windows near or in locked doors have been shot out before; I’m thinking, for example, of the Sandy Hook shooter who was not stopped by locks.
RIP to the victims.
NOTE: I will add that I know Bend, Oregon, very well. It’s a town in the heart of what’s known as the Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway, or U.S. Route 97. I’ve traveled on it many a time with Gerard, and we stayed in Bend many times as well. It’s a beautiful although touristy town in a fascinating setting for those of us who are interested in volcanos. I am one of those people.
This one is cutting a little too close to home. We have extended family in Bend, and we believe their child goes to this school. We haven’t wanted to intrude, knowing that if there was news of the worst, we’d have heard it by now. So we don’t know details yet. But I can’t stop imagining what they all must be feeling. And what on earth do the parents say to your child? She can’t go back to school tomorrow, or maybe ever. Who knows what the future holds? What reassurance is there to offer? It would be the world turning upside down for all of them — and that’s if their child survived.
What has happened to young people? It is incomprehensible to this ordinary citizen; and I suppose it is as well to people who professionally study emotions and thought processes.
There will be the usual hue and cry about guns although that is not the core issue by any means. I grew up in a gun culture; not in my home but certainly while staying on the farm of a favorite Uncle. We were entrusted with the ubiquitous .22 reasonably early. My brother and I were allowed to buy our own shotguns as teenagers, and we shot skeet informally, or hunted unsupervised with other teens. Kids simply did not shoot other people.
To blame it on guns obscures much darker issues in our current society.
Terrible to read this. There is no stopping this other that be ready and a good person with a firearm.
This dad, armed with a handgun, decided to stop a kid armed with a pump shotgun. That took a ton of toxic masculinity to attempt and another ton to succeed at.
Arm teachers and school employees.
Develop proficiency training courses with periodic refreshers and pay armed persons a small bonus.
“… before police even arrived..” When will people understand that when seconds count, the police are just minutes away.
Andrew Branca has a video up today discussing the use of force in defense of others, and what potential legal trouble the Hero Dad might face for bringing a firearm onto the school property, the school being a “gun free zone”.
[Andrew is sometimes long-winded but legal details often call for that. He also touts his offer of the free copy of “Law of Self-Defense” book, a must-have if you carry, or just defend your castle.]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEmavhYMzbM
Brave hero.
I saw it mentioned elsewhere that there is a population of retired cops that love kids and still love the mission, who would be standing in line for a job as a volunteer school cop. And this rings true. The problem is, all the school boards and whacko parents that are so dead set against it.
I have not seen much reporting on the fact that the teen shooter was a “special needs” student, and that he went first to that classroom when he got into the school and started shooting there. Is that significant? I’ll leave that to professionals.
There is also reporting that the shooter was able to get off a dozen or more shots. Given that his shotgun probably only held 4-5 shells at most (it is true some shotguns hold up to 8 shells in the magazine, but those are specialty “home defense” shotguns), it appears he reloaded several times. That surprises me, since he was in the school for fewer than 10 minutes before being shot himself.
Dr. Dave is right. You don’t want to be in a situation where the perp has the slightest chance to return fire with a 12-gage, if that’s what it was. Not that a 20-gage is much better.
Yesterday morning I took a couple of visitors from London to the range for their first experience firing guns. Among other things, we discussed firearms regulation in the UK — if you live outside the cities, you can get a shotgun without jumping through all that many hoops. There are lots and lots of legal shotguns floating around the UK.
And yet you hardly ever get an incident like this. I don’t have an answer. It might help if America were still a church-going society. But I think British churches are largely empty.
They had a great time at the range.
This father had children inside the school, and he did what he had to do. God bless him; he saved many lives. He’s not giving interviews; feels bad because he wasn’t able to save all the lives.
Outside the perimeter is a line of people waiting to get in. They can be a target. But when your perimeter consists of signs….
I have some friends….liberal women… who think a sign saying “no guns” means you can’t bring guns in, as if in some mystical way….you can’t move. Or the gun jumps out of your pocket. But “can’t” is a physical matter to them. … As on CCP instructor said, count the weapons on an HVAC belt.
Many have said this before; this didn’t used to happen. What changed? Talked to some el ed staff about sixth-grade boys in 1956. Today, they’d all be arrested before lunch. But.. …. nothing happened.
I would bet shotgun boy was so focused on the people he was murdering that didn’t even know hero daddy was coming up behind him.
Beside social and cultural factors, I’m wondering if one of the chief drivers behind these increasing numbers of such school shootings isn’t also the many psychoactive drugs being pumped into what seems like almost every one of these “troubled” young people.
Snow on Pine
The Internet is full of SSRI stories where someone killed everyone in the family after being treated and prescribed for depression.
Obviously some people lose it completely when starting on these drugs, but they are so profitable that pharma is blocking the sort of treatment restrictions that would stop it.
RIP for the murdered children and teacher, hurraah for the hero, prayers for the parents, but 96 hours for the rest.
A lot of good that no-gun zone designation did.
A good man with a gun.. “… before police even arrived..”
A lot of good that no-gun zone designation did.
A good man with a gun.. “… before police even arrived..”
My heart breaks for those families.
It should be noted that in addition to the hero dad, a teacher (a woman) tackled the gunman and likely prevented more deaths before he could get more shots off. Bravo to her as well.
So teacher hero was engaged in hand to hand combat with the killer when daddy hero shot him dead? Downside of long guns.
There is an el ed school nearby where I once did some mentoring. I was one third of the men in that building for an hour a week. You’d figure a male teacher or janitor could successfully duke it out with a sixteen year old, But, all grace for the woman who tried,
This will be out of the news cycle lickity split.
The perp used a pump action shotgun. Unpossible because everyone knows that only evil “assault weapons” spray shots fast enough for mass casualty events.
The perp was stopped by a lawful concealed carrier. Unpossible because everyone knows the only reason people get concealed carry licenses is to get into gunfights over parking spaces.
It’s going to come out shortly that the perp was in a “protected” group. Autistic, gender confused, gay, something of that nature. Unpossible because everyone knows that marginalized people are all saintly and above criticism.
I predict that by Monday this will fall into the media memory hole and we’ll never hear about it from the left again.
I’m surprised we haven’t heard the usual spiel about “gun violence” as if inanimate objects could become violent.
Aside from requiring teachers and school personnel to carry guns, I just don’t see a way to prevent these terrible incidents.
Clearly tighter gun laws do not work at all; those who wish to obtain guns always find a way (see the war on drugs; how is that working out) .
It is incredible that anybody believes assigning a school to be a “no gun zone” will prevent a school shooting. This is no different than having a sign posted on every bank stating “bank robbery is not permitted,” or a store posting “No Shoplifting.”
What happens next is predicable; much time and effort will be devoted in trying to ascertain the shooter’s motive and his mental state, why the shotgun was not locked up, etc etc.
None of this is useful in preventing another school shooting.
Maybe / hopefully somebody can come up with an effective way to prevent these school shootings.
Richard Illyes on October 16, 2026 at 6:18 pm said:
Arm teachers and school employees.
I am not sure arming Purple Hair, tatted up teachers weapons is a good idea.
A frail sixteen year old might need a gun to do harm. Or he could drive across the lawn to the kids getting off the bus. Or…… But a fit sixteen year old, or older with…..a crowbar? Knife? in an elementary school, anyway. As my mother used to say, it’s the thought that counts.
I’m so impressed that the teacher threw her phone at him to distract him, then managed to tackle him and was trying to wrestle the shotgun away from him when armed dad ran in and shot him dead. That was some serious courage. It might have turned out very badly if the kid hadn’t been shot and disabled/killed, but she bought time for some kids in that room who had been next in line to be mowed down, and the cavalry did arrive.
Home-schoolers … largely unaffected.
There’s been a theory since Columbine that at least high schoolers should be taught to just throw their books, followed by their phones, and everything else, at school shooters, then attack them physically. Sure, the shooter might get one or two of them, but he likely would be quickly taken down. Instead, of course, they are taught dependency. Which allows shooters to take their time for aimed shots.
But then, looking at what happened on 9/11, it would probably work on airplanes. Instead of placing the disabled and elderly in the front rows, just put males 18-40 there. Prioritize active military and vets. And they would take care of the problem very quickly.
Early in my son’s business career, he flew frequently. Starting about 2001. Having been all -conf linebacker in high school, he was frequently upgraded to first class or business class.
Mark Steyn remarked that “lean young men in tight haircuts, burly businessmen, and arthritic grannies” all want a piece of the next batch to try this. From which, I think I see an evolution of more help from the passengers for the cabin crew in the case of rowdy passengers. Take what you can get, I suppose,