The Oregon school district where a teenage gunman was shot dead after killing four people had banned guns from its premises, authorities said.
A 16-year-old local resident, armed with a long gun, shot through locked doors to enter Silver Rail Elementary in Bend on Thursday. Three children and a teacher died and a 7-year-old child and a 54-year-old teacher were transported to hospital with critical injuries, said Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz at a news conference Thursday evening.
The shooter, who has not been named, was found dead inside the school minutes after the shooting was first reported. He was shot dead by a community member who had seen him enter the school and followed him inside, Krantz said.
The school is in a district, Bend-La Pine Schools, that banned guns from school grounds after a change in Oregon law in 2021. Newsweek has contacted the school district for comment via email.
Thursday’s shooting has reignited debate about school policies around guns, some people arguing that schools should remain gun-free zones, others saying that allowing some adults to carry concealed weapons could limit damage in the event of mass shootings.
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What Were the District's Gun Rules?
The Bend-La Pine Schools’ website says that "firearms/weapons are prohibited on all district property."
The website also says students are barred from bringing or possessing weapons of any kind on school property, including replicas. Any student who violates the rule faces discipline, including expulsion.
The school district passed a ban after Oregon Senate Bill 554 was passed by lawmakers in 2021, giving every public school district the option to ban guns from their premises.
The Bend-La Pine school district was among the few school districts that chose to close the exception allowing holders of a concealed handgun license to carry weapons onto public property where possessing a gun would otherwise be a felony, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB). Only 13 percent of the state’s public schools had chosen to ban guns from their premises by June 2022, said OPB.
The Bend-La Pine school board approved its ban in December 2021, according to OPB. At the time, the school board’s chair, Melissa Barnes Dholakia, told the outlet that it "allowed us to complete the commitment that we already had in place of having gun-free schools."
Under the policies adopted by the districts, anyone violating the ban could face trespassing citations, removal from campus and referral to law enforcement, OPB reported. Holders of a concealed handgun license who violate school gun bans face a class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $6,250 fine.
State law does still allow possession of firearms that are stored unloaded and locked inside vehicles on school property.
Earlier this month, a teacher at La Pine High School, one of the district's schools, resigned after inadvertently bringing a gun to campus, local news station KTVZ reported.
'Good Guy With a Gun' Debate Reignited
Thursday’s shooting quickly resurrected arguments that having armed people inside schools could stop active-shooter incidents before police arrive on the scene.
But opponents to such proposals have argued there is no evidence those proposals will curb instances of gun violence at school and that having guns inside schools will increase the risk of students being shot.
Representative Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican and gun rights advocate, noted in a post on X that the suspect in Thursday’s shooting was shot dead by a bystander.
"Gun free zones are deadly," Massie wrote.
Mario Nawfal, a podcast host, wrote on X: "A random bystander took down the Oregon school shooter in under three minutes…in a district that BANS guns on campus."
But those who believe schools should be gun-free environments argue that arming teachers would only increase the risk of shootings.
"Having guns in the classroom increases the likelihood that a student will access a gun and that someone will be shot outside of an active shooter incident," Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun violence prevention advocacy organization, says on its website.
Schools Closed
The school district, which serves 16,000 students across 33 schools, has announced that classes, along with activities and sporting events, are canceled on Friday.
At Thursday's news conference, Bend-La Pine Schools Superintendent Steven Cook called what happened "an unthinkable tragedy."
He said: "No community should have to do what we're doing right now. I don't have any words for what this community is feeling right now, and I don't think anyone does. We are heartbroken. We are horrified."
Cook added that crisis counselors will be made available at the central library for students, families, staff and anyone else who needs support on Friday.
What Officials Have Said
At Thursday’s news conference, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek, a Democrat, thanked the community member who shot the gunman for their "heroic" intervention.
"To the community member who heroically intervened to stop further loss of life: Your actions carry a heavy emotional burden, and I just want you to know that my thoughts are with you as well," she said.
There will be time to search "for more ways to prevent this from happening in the future," Kotek said. "But for now, let's hold each other close in grief and put as much love into the world as possible."
Krantz said he did not have information about the kind of gun used by the community member who shot the gunman.
He said investigators were working to determine the shooter's motive and whether he had any connection to the school.
FBI Director Kash Patel said agents were on the scene and assisting local partners in the investigation. "We will make every resource they need available," Patel wrote on X.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Matthew Cannon and Trevor Davies