Silver Rail deaths prove a shotgun is too much for a teenager
By Daniel Okafor · Reporting from New York ·
Kaylub Giamanco stopped a massacre at Silver Rail Elementary, but the death of Rhoam Summer shows that armed bystanders cannot fix a failure of gun security.
The deaths at Silver Rail Elementary were not an accident of fate. They were the result of two failures: a parent who gave a teenager a shotgun and a school district that left its doors open to a breach. When a child dies in a classroom, the blame belongs to those who let the weapon in the building.
The breach of a classroom
The attack began just before 1 p.m. on Thursday in Bend, Oregon. Griffin J John II, 16, climbed a perimeter fence. He shot at a witness in a pickup truck. He then fired into the glass panes of double doors to force his way inside. CNN said the shooter used a pump-action shotgun. His mother purchased the weapon.
John II entered a special needs classroom and fired as many as 15 rounds. He had ammunition left when he was stopped. An unnamed teacher threw her mobile phone at him and tackled him. BBC said she tried to wrestle the gun from him. This struggle slowed the killing, but it did not stop it.
The shooter's mother told KTVZ that she thought her son needed help from skilled teachers. She said he was a good boy. These words do not change the fact that he carried a shotgun into a room of children.
The people the facts leave behind
Four people died. Rhoam Summer was 5. Meghan Lambert, a teacher, also died. NBC News said Lambert was a Boise State University graduate who coached volleyball. Her family said she fought for the underdog and those with special needs.
The injuries were just as severe. A 7-year-old student in a wheelchair was shot in the face. That child remains in serious but stable condition. Becky Drury, a teacher, sustained serious injuries.
The cost of this failure is seen in the families. Kelik Summer said the family is broken and lost. Bryan Jolly, the grandfather of Rhoam Summer, described the boy as fun-loving and without fear. He called the event senseless. The facts show it was not senseless. It was the predictable result of a teenager with a shotgun.
Can an armed bystander stop a massacre?
Kaylub Giamanco, 36, is a carpenter and a father of two students at the school. He saw the shooter enter the building. Giamanco followed the gunman into the classroom with a concealed pistol. He shot John II dead.
President Donald Trump called Giamanco a hero. He said thank goodness for a man that had a gun and knew how to use it. This is the case for the armed citizen: that a "good guy with a gun" can end a massacre.
But this narrative ignores the timing. Giamanco did not stop the shooter from scaling the fence. He did not stop the shooter from breaking the doors. He did not stop the rounds from firing. Giamanco's pistol did not save Rhoam Summer. It only stopped the count from rising. The intervention of a bystander is a remedy for a failure, not a replacement for security.
Returning students follow a pattern
This attack follows a grim pattern. The 2023 Nashville school shooting shares the same mechanism: a former student targets an elementary school they once attended to kill children and staff.
The long record of school attacks shows that forced entry is a recurring flaw. In the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, the gunman forced entry by shooting out a window. Silver Rail saw the same breach through its double doors.
The mechanism is always the same. A person with a grievance finds a way through a weak perimeter. They use a weapon that should never have been in their hands. Then, the community relies on the courage of teachers and the chance presence of armed parents to stop the bleeding.
The evidence suggests that federal investigators will find no manifesto or radical network. They will likely find a set of personal grievances. This will not change the need for fortified perimeters and mandatory visitor screening. The school district now faces the pressure to overhaul access controls.
The local prosecutors will likely decline to charge Kaylub Giamanco. He acted to save lives in a public massacre. But the legal protection of the shooter's killer does not erase the negligence of the shooter's provider. A teenager with a pump-action shotgun is a disaster waiting for a door to break. The adults in this story failed the children long before the first shot was fired.
Sources
- BBC: Teacher fought US school attacker before armed dad shot suspect 'multiple times'
- NBC News: Oregon school shooting victims include 5-year-old whose family is ‘broken and lost’
- BBC: Teacher fought US school attacker before armed dad shot suspect 'multiple times'
- CNN: What we know about the 16-year-old who opened fire at his former elementary school, killing 4 in a special needs classroom