A 16-year-old shooter opened fire at an elementary school in Bend, Oregon, on Thursday, fatally shooting a teacher and three children, before he was killed by a community member, authorities said at a evening news conference.
A seven-year-old and a 54-year-old have been hospitalized with critical injuries, according to police.
The gunman has not been publicly identified. Officials said they are still investigating if he had ties to the school.
The deadly shooting has rocked the city of 100,000 residents located on the Deschutes River, roughly 170 miles south-east of Portland.
I’m looking at the Deschutes River right now, and we were in Bend a couple of weeks ago. It reminded me of Boulder, Colorado — affluent, lots of “cool” businesses, a great place to raise a family if you can afford it. Now, three children and a teacher are dead there, and another child and adult are fighting for their lives.
One of the many ways that Republican propaganda has been effective is to convince people that there’s no hope for change. The healthcare system is awful — it can’t be changed, but what can happen is that Republicans can convince their voters that some black or brown people are getting the medical care that they can’t have, for free, because of Democrats. We have to tolerate the deaths of children at the hands of other children with guns, because freedom, and there’s nothing that can be done about it. Prices are going to go up because of a stupid war, but stupid wars are what we need to have to keep our precious freedoms.
At some point, people get sick of this shit and look for change. This happened in 2008, and Obama got elected after people got fed up. We’re at another inflection point in 2026 (and, hopefully in 2028), but, again, Democrats are going to face immense pressure from Republicans, who are invested in a status quo of kids dying in school shootings, pregnant women dying in hospital parking lots, and endless war.
Another point:
As part of a 2022 bond approved by voters, Silver Rail [the school in Bend] received new door-locking hardware for each of its classrooms, making it possible to lock doors by flipping a single switch.
Kay’s post yesterday about education, and the discussion in the comments, mentioned a lot of good issues. But what wasn’t mentioned is the massive amount of money that is being spent in schools to “harden” them and also to do things like active shooter training for kids. We are dumping millions upon millions of dollars into “education” that is spent to counter the threat of gun violence.
I don’t ask for a lot — just that gun owners pay their own way. Their hobby uses a device that exacts a massive social cost. Pay your way, gun owners. Pay for insurance the way that car owners do. Get licensed for your gun, paying a fair price that reflects the social costs of guns. And, if you’re a parent and your kid shoots other kids in a school, get ready to be bankrupted and go to jail for letting your kid get his hands on a firearm. Things would suck a little less if gun owners had to pay their fair share.
