Mass Carnage by Deranged Individuals

Another school year, another mass shooting. As of this column, there have been 326 mass shootings in 2026. The latest mass murderer/murdered suspect was a 16-year-old boy who shot three children and a teacher at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, on October 15. He was identified by local police as Griffin J. John II, a 16-year-old young man who killed three children and 25-year-old teacher, Megan Lambert, at a Bend, Oregon school. The shooter fired into a special education classroom, police said Friday, before he was fatally shot by an armed civilian.

The children killed were 5-year-old Rhoam Summer as well as an 8-year-old and an 11-year-old whose families have requested their names not be released. A 7-year-old child and 54-year-old teacher, Becky Drury, were injured and are receiving medical care. Drury threw her cellphone at the suspect, tackled him, and fought to take away his firearm. “She was not injured in that incident, but she almost certainly helped prevent more bloodshed,” Bend, Oregon police chief, Mike Krantz, stated at an October 16 news conference.

Teacher Megan Lambert, 25, and kindergarten student, Rhoam Summer, 5, both died in the Oct. 15, 2026, Silver Rail Elementary School shooting in Bend, Ore. Police did not release the names of the other two boys, ages 8 and 11, who were killed. Courtesy of Bend Police Department/OPB.

John II, a former student at the school, was shot dead at the scene by a man who just happened to be passing by. Two senior law enforcement officials informed the media that the boy’s mother purchased the weapon he used around his birthday in August. The shooting was the 10th mass killing at an elementary or secondary school since 2006. The 5-year-old victim in Oregon is the youngest of all the people killed. John II is the latest deranged individual who carried out an act of mass carnage. As the emergency responders fiercely reacted, hundreds of parents and families frantically waited outside for updates. Some students inside the school shared information with families via smartwatches, according to local media outlet The Bulletin. At the moment, police have no motive for his horrendous attack.

Once again, the horror of school shootings – and mass murders in general – has reemerged at the forefront of American society: Columbine, Colo. (1999); Virginia Tech (2005); Sandy Hook, Conn. (2012); the Navy Yard in Washington (2013); Oregon (2015); the Pulse nightclub in Orlando (2016); Sutherland Springs in Texas (2017); Parkland, Fla. (2018); El Paso, Texas (2019); Uvalde and Buffalo (2022); Lewiston, Maine, and Monterey Park, Calif. (2023); Jacksonville (2025); and most recently, Bend, Ore. (2026).Through them all, we find ourselves circling back, pondering the same questions and harboring the same emotions.

Truth be told, mass shootings are hardly news. In August 1966, Charles Whitman murdered 17 people after locking himself in the central clock tower at the University of Texas at Austin, targeting random individuals from the 28th-floor observation deck. A decade later, a string of horrific school shootings commenced. In 1976, Charles Edward Allaway killed seven people at California State University, Fullerton; in 1989, Patrick Purdy killed five children in Stockton, Calif.; in 1991, graduate student Gang Lu killed three faculty members at the University of Iowa; and in 1992, Eric Houston killed three students and a teacher at Lindhurst High School in Olivehurst, Calif. It’s therefore not accurate to state, as some have done, that the trend of mass shootings began with the terrible events at Columbine High School in 1999.

The bystander who stepped in to prevent further casualties publicly identified himself as Kaylub Giamanco. Giamanco is a lifelong Bend resident who has two daughters at the school. Police said Giamanco pursued and fatally shot the 16-year-old attacker, ending a rampage that took the lives of three children and a teacher and wounded two others. Giamanco’s family released a public statement announcing that “He was not seeking recognition, but instead, wished to express his praise to the first responders, school personnel, and community for the immense amount support he has received.” “The tragedy at Silver Rail Elementary has devastated the Bend community,” they wrote. Additionally, Giamanco and his family asked for privacy and said they will not be giving interviews. Hopefully, the media and larger public will adhere to their request to respect their privacy.

While we await more information about this tragedy, one indisputable fact is that many mass shooters have been part of a sordid online community of secret dark web groups, influenced by the blatantly callous, acid rhetoric steadily emanating from the currently fractured political environment. If we are being honest, much of it emanates from the depths of the political and cultural right-wing echo chamber. As has been the case with preceding tragedies, we hear the same routine, obligatory commentary from politicians across the political spectrum: “Guns don’t kill people, people do”; “We must pass laws to prohibit such acts from occurring”; “We need to address the issue of mental health”; “We must harden our schools”; “We cannot trample on the Second Amendment”; and so on. In essence, the same gun violence cultivates the same response: denounce the killings and then offer our thoughts and prayers to the dead victims’ families, the brokenhearted, and the emotionally devastated.

To be sure, I have no problem with anyone issuing thoughts, prayers, or any other similar gestures to the victims of such inhumane carnage. Even so, personal concern and altruism are not sufficient substitutes for providing crucial resources – mental, community based, financial etc. – or for strengthening existing laws in certain states and jurisdictions that are far too relaxed, if not outright draconian in their rules and requirements. Thus, it must have a dual focus.

With regard to donating resources to mental health, I concur with such an effort, and I would like to believe that most Americans concur. Truth be told, however, the vast majority of people who suffer from mental health issues are not murderers. Rational Americans are getting SICK AND TIRED of the constant and redundant commentary from gun manufacturers, right-wing politicians, and others who continue to look for scapegoats instead of confronting the issue head-on. Such deflection, denial, and doublespeak from deeply flawed, amoral individuals are wearing thin. Action must be taken quickly!