We're learning more about the extraordinary bravery exhibited by a dad who heard gunshots and ran toward them inside a Bend, Ore., elementary school and stopped a murderer. And there are more heroes to celebrate in this tragic story. Sadly, however, we're not learning much from the politicos in that largely leftist state whose default position is to blame the gun and not the malicious and sick person who murdered three children and at least one teacher and wounded others at Silver Rail Elementary on Thursday.
To them, it's always the gun's fault.
It turns out that a passerby, a man in a red truck, saw 16-year-old Griffin John II with a gun on school grounds and started yelling at him. John then aimed his shotgun at the truck and started shooting. That driver survived and called 911. That's when a father of two children who attended the school, Kaylub Giamanco, veered toward the sound of gunshots, grabbed his pistol, and followed the gunman inside.
Giamanco, a 36-year-old Bend area carpenter, found the gunman, whom the ABC News describes as a "boy," wrestling with a female teacher who'd jumped him to get control of his gun.
Giamanco, who legally carried a concealed .40 caliber pistol, shot the murderer multiple times and ended the threat before the first deputy ever arrived, according to the Deschutes County Sheriff.
Three heroes.
Within hours of the horrific incident, Oregon's usual voices of the left and the GOP leaders had weighed in on the incident with predictable, hypocritical, and passive fashion. PJ Media readers noticed.
Commenters in this week's West Coast, Messed Coast™ column, West Coast, Messed Coast™ — Let's Hear It for an Oregon Good Guy With a Gun, noted that the anti-gun governor, Tina Kotek's reaction, at least mentioned the good guy with a gun. But.
Kotek first thanked teachers, staff, and "first responders" who weren't the first to respond, and said of Giamanco's actions that he "heroically intervened to stop further loss of life" but, "your actions carry a heavy emotional burden – and my thoughts are with you."
That's more than good guys with guns usually get, but, hey, it's election season, and she's in a neck-and-neck race with Republican Christine Drazan. Those who look at Kotek's anti-gun record were rightly disdainful.
Commenter Sanchez wrote in part:
How to define irony. She praises a man she wants to disarm!
Her position on the Second Amendment is generally to support gun-violence prevention laws that place additional restrictions on firearm access and use, rather than favoring fewer gun regulations.
'Governor Kotek Signs the Community Safety Firearms Act. The event included supporters and advocates of Senate Bill 243, including representatives from Moms Demand Action, Alliance for Gun Safety, and Everytown for Gun Safety.'
It must have wounded Kotek to give one ounce of praise to the man who saved the day.
Lioness wrote:
The creepy, pandering Kotek wants us all disarmed and hunting outlawed in Oregon. Do not be fooled. Banning hunting and meat processing of all kind ALMOST made the ballot here. The liberal tools in Portland support her. I just cast my vote for Drazen.
She's absolutely right.
PVLFG wrote:
After this incident, maybe the unfortunately named governor will change her position. Or maybe pigs will become airborne.
Oregon Second Amendment supporters aren't fooled.
Kevin Starrett, the executive director of the Oregon Firearms Federation, castigated Republicans for their flaccid response to the hero dad in an alert he sent out to his members.
Hero: Local Outlet Identifies Hero Who Took Out Oregon School Shooter
He called "laughable" the response by the Oregon Department of Emergency Management for taking a victory lap for preparation — which did nothing to stop the threat since the 16-year-old killer used his shotgun to shoot through the safety door designed to keep out school shooters.
He lambasted the media for highlighting anti-gun politicians' reactions while never mentioning the guy who actually stopped the threat, a man who believes in self-defense. Nor did they ask for comment from the self-defense groups in Oregon, like Starrett's.
House Republican “Leader” Lucetta Elmer never mentioned the man with the gun who stopped the murderer. Neither did Republican Senator Mike McLane, whom Starrett quotes: “Oregonians in all corners of the state will wrap this community in love and support. We are grieving. We are horrified by the senseless violence."
They and other leftist organizations like the Oregon Nurses Association that issued a press release filled with a pabulum of platitudes never mentioned the guy who saved the day.
But what was missing, Starrett asked.
"Like an even passing reference to the armed hero who stopped this carnage? ... They didn’t mention that their efforts, while all implemented, have been a complete failure," he said. "Nor did they, like almost everyone else who rushed to put out a press release, make any mention of what did work," he concluded.
The only Republican who won praise from the gun rights leader was Oregon State Rep. Alex Skarlatos, whom you may recall answered the call to help stop an ISIS terror attack on a train in France in 2015 with three of his buddies.
Skarlatos said, "That kind of courage is rare, and it should be recognized. There are families in Bend tonight whose children are coming home because one person was prepared and willing to act."
Starrett told me in an interview that he's not surprised by the usual chorus of Democrats and socialists ignoring the heroism of the father for ending the threat.
"The left is doing what the left promised to do," he said. "You can't blame a scorpion for acting like a scorpion." "But," he added, "the Republicans have an opportunity to change minds dealing with this and failed. It is an opportunity that a five year old would have hit out of the park."
Kotek, he said, "Is the only one who acknowledged his heroism."
And it must have killed her to do it.
Starrett said in his alert what most Second Amendment fans know:
Nothing stops bad people except good people prepared and willing to risk themselves for others.
We love and respect our police, firefighters, and paramedics, but they are NOT “first” responders. YOU are.
I can't help but go back to that heroic teacher who jumped on the shooter to get his gun. My God, what guts.
Now imagine if she were allowed to carry a pistol.
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