Thursday afternoon in Bend, Oregon, tragedy struck again when a 16-year-old with a shotgun shot through the locked doors of Silver Rail Elementary School and walked in. Three children, ages 5, 8 and 11, and a teacher are dead. A 7-year-old and a 54-year-old teacher are fighting for their lives.
The Bend-La Pine school district bans firearms on all of its property, including for concealed carry license holders. It did that in 2021, after an Oregon law let districts close that exception. Only 25 of Oregon’s 197 districts chose to. Bend was one of them.
The ban did not stop the shooter. A sign cannot stop a killer. Locked doors cannot stop a killer. A policy memo cannot stop a killer.
What did stop him? According to police, a community member with a concealed carry permit saw the teen enter, went in after him and shot him. Officers arrived minutes later and found the gunman dead. Federal law enforcement sources said the bystander prevented more deaths. Not the district’s rules. A law-abiding person with a gun did, in a building where the rules said he was not supposed to have one.
This is my opinion, and I will say it without softening it: the liberal politicians who write, pass and defend these laws own this, and are responsible for the deaths of these children. Every time they ban law-abiding, trained, licensed people from carrying where children are, they are choosing who will be armed in that building, and the only one they leave armed is the killer. They call it safety. They call it “common sense.” Then they send a sign to do the job of a guard. I call it cold-blooded murder.
They have been told, again and again, that criminals do not obey “no guns allowed.” They pass the bans anyway. They expand the list of “sensitive places” anyway. And when children die in a building that was gun-free by policy, they tell us we need more of the same. At some point that stops being a mistake. At some point they have to answer for it.
Three minutes passed between the first 911 call and the officers arriving. In a school hallway, three minutes is a lifetime. Whoever is there first is the only protection those children have. The politicians who keep banning good people with guns are deciding, in advance, that the first person there should be unarmed.
People who keep making these laws after Bend have shown us why they should not be the ones making our laws. Hold them accountable. They, and only they, are responsible for the children’s’ deaths.
My prayers are with the families of the children and the teacher who were killed, and with those still fighting to recover.
And to the man who prevented much bloodshed, let’s hope he’s properly honored for his heroic actions – perhaps even by the President of the United Stated.
Very well written
100%!!! It’s only shows the stupidity and hypocrisy of the liberals and the left!
very valid point. thank you for bringing it up.
What’s the data for accidental or intentional deaths or serious harm by a licensed gun holder in a school where carrying is permitted? In other words your spot on ONLY if there’s data that the alternative (allowing licensed guns) is actually as safe as you’re making it seem….. thoughts?
Those children would still be alive if those 5 year olds had concealed weapons. Maybe they’d still be alive if their teacher was leaving loaded weapons on their desk or on their person incase it’s needed. Armed cops were too scared to enter an elementary school with an active shooter at Uvalde but certainly we can trust an elementary school teacher to hit the target and only the target under duress. Damn liberals.
The opinion writer thinks that he can guilt liberals into feeling their laws are responsible. Meanwhile, he can take all the children and adults killed by AR-15’s and other automatic weapons and NOT DO ANYTHING.
How many people have been killed by legally obtained ar 15’s? Almost all guns used today are automatic.
Legally obtained? Ah yes, the responsible gun owners I hear all about that lock up all their guns… certainly every shooting is from a gun stolen from one of those guys. How do they get in the safe? I don’t know, must hold them hostage in a home invasion they bought those guns to protect from and not a legally obtained gun or a family gun or anything. Certainly, we haven’t seen any mass shooters in recent times who owned their own guns or used their moms.
does anyone think posting a sign “no Gun allowed ” would stop a lunatic from committing murder ?
If I remember correctly according to New York state statistics 94% of shootings approximately happen in gun free zones
According to New York state statistics approximately 94% of shootings happen in gun free zones
Well, in New Jersey it is most probable that the man who shot the criminal would be brought up on charges of him carrying a gun into the school.
I think we should go back to the days of the writing of the constitution. Where there were no regulations on guns. Could you imagine? Everybody’s packing. You can pack a machine gun, semi automatic fully automatic side arm in the inner city in the rural areas. I think we would have a great society. we could resolve almost every problem with having a showdown at high noon. if you really wanna play this whole scenario out than everybody should be packing. I hope people understand that that is a ludicrous scenario.
The people clicking thumbs down would not win the quick draw shootout it seems.
The owner of the concealed gun was not in the building. So the district’s law against concealed carry was not a factor. Unless you can prove that there was a teacher or administrator in the building who had a concealed license but didn’t carry due to the law. The concealed gun owner, who has 2 kids in the school, “happened” to be passing by and heard the shots.
“Banning good people with guns”, most people aren’t good people.
crazy left wing liberals. arm the teachers! that is a sane solution.