The armed bystander credited by law enforcement with stopping a deadly mass shooting at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, has been identified as Kaylub Giamanco, a 36-year-old local carpenter and father of two students at the school.
Giamanco’s identity was confirmed Friday by his brother, Kyle Giamanco, shedding light on the critical civilian intervention that halted 16-year-old gunman John J. Griffin II before responding police units breached the school’s doors.
The Thursday afternoon attack claimed the lives of four victims—three children ages 5, 8, and 11, and a teacher—while leaving two others critically injured. According to family members and law enforcement reports, Giamanco’s decision to pursue the shooter inside prevented a catastrophic situation from claiming further lives.
Kaylub Giamanco, 36, works as a carpenter in the Bend community and is the father of two young daughters who attend Silver Rail Elementary.
Contrary to initial rumors circulating online that Giamanco was on campus to pick up his daughters, his brother explained that Giamanco was simply driving home from work for his lunch break just before 1:00 p.m..
As he drove near the school, Giamanco heard gunshots echoing from the street—where Griffin had fired multiple rounds into a passing pickup truck—and saw the armed teenager breaching the perimeter and entering the elementary building.Holding a valid concealed-carry permit, Giamanco armed himself and ran toward the campus without waiting for law enforcement to arrive.
The Classroom Confrontation
According to Kyle Giamanco, his brother tracked the gunman down the hallway into a special education classroom, where Griffin had begun firing:
- Targeting the Room: The fact that the attack unfolded inside a special education setting explains why the victims spanned multiple age groups, as these classrooms often accommodate mixed grade levels.
- Neutralizing the Threat: Giamanco confronted the armed teenager inside the room and fatally shot him, ending the assault within minutes of Griffin forcing entry through locked exterior glass doors.
- Police Arrival: When the first Bend police officers arrived at 1:02 p.m.—three minutes after the initial 911 call from the motorist outside—dispatchers informed responding units that the shooter had already been neutralized by a father inside the facility.
Griffin, who was armed with a pump-action shotgun purchased by his mother around his 16th birthday in August, was pronounced dead at the scene.
The Casualties and the Hospitalized
While Giamanco’s actions ended the rampage, the toll on the school community remains devastating:
- Fatalities: Among the deceased children is 5-year-old kindergartener Rhoam Summer, whose family confirmed his passing in a statement on Friday. Two other students, ages 8 and 11, and an adult teacher were also killed.
- Critically Wounded: Two victims remain in critical condition at St. Charles Medical Center: a 54-year-old teacher and a 7-year-old student. Kyle Giamanco noted that his family is close with the family of the injured 7-year-old, a child in a wheelchair who was shot in the face and is currently recovering following emergency surgery.
“He Doesn’t Feel Like a Hero”
Despite praise from state officials, lawmakers, and community members, Giamanco has declined public interviews. His brother told reporters that Kaylub is struggling with the aftermath of what he witnessed.
“He doesn’t feel like a hero,” Kyle Giamanco said of his brother. “He can’t get the children out of his head and feels guilty he didn’t save more people”.
Investigators from the Bend Police Department, Oregon State Police, and the FBI remain on scene at Silver Rail Elementary, conducting ballistics reconstructions and interviewing witnesses to establish the full timeline of the incident. All schools across the Bend-La Pine School District remained closed on Friday as the city held community vigils.
Top tier geopolitical troll
— Oilfield Rando (@Oilfield_Rando) October 15, 2026
It’s so nice when they provide such positive identification for future use
Rory Little Recurring Columnist
The Second Amendment and AR-15s: an unexplained betrayal of originalism?
Last month, I provided a short discussion of the upcoming AR-15 rifle ban case, Viramontes v. Cook County, noting that the 2008 pathbreaking Second Amendment decision, District of Columbia v. Heller, ended by adding a “Part III” that identified “an important limitation on the right to keep and carry arms.” For a 5-4 majority, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote that “the sorts of weapons protected were those ‘in common use at the time (emphasis added).’” Scalia said that this limitation is “fairly supported by … historical tradition” and he provided a lengthy string of citations to demonstrate that proposition.
The Supreme Court has never examined the meaning of the “in common use at the time of the founding” limitation that the Heller majority described and said was supported by history. Instead, as detailed below, federal courts have silently transformed the Second Amendment test to extend it to weapons “in common use today.” Under this transformed test, AR-15 semi-automatic rifles might be protected although its advocates explain that they are a 20th century technological development. Yet if Scalia’s words are given their plain meaning, local governments would seem to have authority to enact bans on such weapons.
Given the consequences of which language applies, I continue to wonder why this is not a centerpiece of the Viramontes debate. (That said, Cook County’s responsive brief on the merits has not yet been filed – it’s due Oct. 21.) Indeed, a week after my column, Professor Jonathan Turley published a short column responding to this point, and calling Scalia’s limitation an “errant qualifier.”
How to Use Cover, Tactics for Self-Defense
Cover is a gift from the heavens if someone tries to kill you with a long-range, portable hole puncher. Cover projects a literal blanket of security that sits between you and certain death. I guarantee anyone reading this owns a gun for self-protection and likely carries the gun for self-defense purposes. If you carry a weapon and intend to defend your life and the life of your family, then you need to know how to use that bulletproof heavenly gift.
“When seconds count, the police are only minutes away.” is once more proven true.
First 30 Seconds: The Active Shooter Problem
by Ed Monk
“Ed Monk is today’s leading expert on thwarting mass murderers. His recommended strategy is by far the most effective, as proven in cases where the defenders did what Monk suggested.” — Massad Ayoob
The basic tenet of Mr Monk’s solution is simple;
“Fighting back quickly gives the best chance of a low victim-count. Fighting back without a gun has often worked. Fighting back with a gun has almost always worked.”
Very bad, but it could have been worse.
Bend, Oregon elementary school shooting: 3 children, 1 teacher killed; teen suspect dead
Three children and one teacher are dead after a shooter forced his way into an elementary school in Oregon on Thursday afternoon and opened fire, authorities said.
The suspected shooter, a 16-year-old, was fatally shot by a community member who saw the teen going into the Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz told reporters at a news conference Thursday evening.
The three children who were killed were 5, 8 and 11 years old.
In addition, a 7-year-old child and a 54-year-old teacher were taken to the hospital with critical injuries, police said.
Police have not publicly identified the suspected shooter saying only that he is a Bend resident. They have not said whether he attended the school or knew anyone at the school.
How the shooting unfolded
The incident began unfolding shortly before 1 p.m. PT Thursday.
At 12:59 p.m., police received a call from a driver who reported being shot at multiple times by a person with a long gun, the police chief said.
Shortly afterward, the Deschutes County dispatch center began receiving multiple 911 calls that a shooter had entered Silver Rail Elementary School.
Krantz said the initial investigation indicates the shooter “forced” his way inside the school by shooting at locked doors.
At 1:01 p.m., the school was directed to go into lockdown, Krantz said.
A minute later, officers arrived on the scene. An officer reported that the suspected shooter had been shot by a community member who had seen the teen entering the school, pursued him and engaged him, Krantz said.
Bystander ‘heroically intervened,’ governor says
“Love has no age, no limit; and no death.”
—John Galsworthy
October 16, 2026
“The people are the only legitimate fountain of power.”
– James Madison
October 15, 2026
No charges for man who shot attacker inside Valdosta Dollar General
VALDOSTA, Ga. (WALB) — One man is facing charges and another is not in a shooting that happened at Dollar General in Valdosta on Oct. 1.
According to the Valdosta Police Department, on Oct. 1 just before 5 p.m., someone called 911 to report a man was beating a woman at the Dollar General in the 2100 block of Bemiss Road. As officers were responding to the store, the caller told dispatchers someone had been shot.
When officers got there, they were given a description of the shooter, who they found standing in the parking lot of the store. They detained the 28-year-old man without incident.
Police say officers went inside the store and found Tevin Jay Love, 32, being held down by another person. Love had been shot in the torso, police say. Officers provided medical care to Love until paramedics arrived to take him to the hospital.
Officers then found the woman Love had reportedly attacked. Officers noted injuries to her head. She was also taken to the hospital for treatment.
During the investigation, officers determined the woman was inside the Dollar General shopping with her teenage daughter when Love went into the store and immediately started hitting her. Police say the woman was Love’s girlfriend. As the woman fell to the ground, Love continued to attack her, police say. The woman’s daughter tried to stop Love, and Love also hit her, according to the report.
Meanwhile, the 28-year-old man was shopping in the store when he saw and heard the attack, police say. The man pulled out his gun and tried to stop Love from attacking the woman. Police say the woman was able to get away and run out of the store. As the man tried to hold Love at gunpoint, Love reportedly charged at the man and began to hit him too. that’s when the man fired once, hitting Love.
Police say Love was released from the hospital Friday, Oct. 9 and taken to the Lowndes County Jail. He’s charged with terroristic threats, aggravated assault, simple battery, and simple assault.
The shooter will not face any charges, police say.
“This citizen observed a female getting viciously beaten by the offender, and he took action to stop the physical assault against her, even putting his life in danger,” said Chief Leslie Manahan. “Because of his quick actions, the assault against the female stopped, preventing her from receiving more violent injuries.”
SAF FACT SHEET REFUTES ANTI-GUN RHETORIC AND PREDICTIONS
BELLEVUE, Wash. — Oct.13, 2026 — The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) has compiled a new fact sheet refuting 85 documented claims from anti-gun groups, advocates and public officials who stated pro-Second Amendment court rulings and reforms would produce more shootings, more deaths and immediate surges in violence.
FBI data and other sources instead show three consecutive years of declining murder rates (-9.1% in 2023, -13.7% in 2024, and -18.1% in 2025), the largest one-year drop in violent crime on record in 2025, and a 2026 trajectory that would put the national murder rate at a modern low of roughly 3.2 per 100,000 based on data through July. The sheet also links all 85 predictions researched and the underlying crime data for transparency.
“After Bruen, after Cargill, after permitless carry, after every other expansion of the right to keep and bear arms, the same organizations and officials predicted more death,” said SAF Director of Legal Research and Education and fact sheet author Kostas Moros. “They were not even close, yet the mainstream media continues to quote these sources without checking the facts, which directly contradict the predictions from gun-control advocates. The fact sheet even puts the predictions and the FBI numbers side-by-side, so no one has to take our word for it, the facts are readily accessible in the document.”
Titled The Bloodbath That Never Came, the fact sheet covers predictions issued after New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen (2022), Garland v. Cargill (the bump-stock decision), the spread of permitless or “constitutional” carry, the elimination of the National Firearms Act tax on certain arms and recent Department of Justice and ATF actions. In each case, groups including Brady, Everytown, Giffords and March For Our Lives, along with elected officials, warned of bloodshed.
“Mainstream news coverage continues to quote anti-gun predictions of imminent violence without mentioning the unbroken record of prior claims that failed,” said SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut. “We hope this research provides a unique resource to anyone looking for the researched numbers instead of relying on the same anti-gun rhetoric we see and hear on the news after every pro-Second Amendment ruling or reform.” You can view the fact sheet in its entirety here.
or here, for that matter:
Ruger Announcement Ignites Angst, Speculation: What We Know
By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
The announcement by Ruger that it was suspending production of certain popular models including the legendary Blackhawk and Redhawk revolvers, and the iconic No. 1 single-shot rifle has ignited a wave of speculation, some misinformation, lots of hand-wringing and no small amount of unjustified doom-and-gloom.
TGM reached out to Ruger and learned, “To clarify, we are suspending production of certain products and completing final production runs of others. This does not necessarily mean these product families are permanently discontinued.”
This is important, as Ruger notes in its message to distributors, “Throughout our history, we have temporarily paused production of established product families, including the 77-series rifles, the 22 Charger and the SR1911 pistol, as market conditions and manufacturing priorities changed.” (Emphasis added)
While the announcement has ignited the typical rumor and speculation mill, here are the facts as spelled out in the “Distributor Update.”
- Ruger is suspending production, effectively immediately, of the LCR, Ruger SP 101, GP100 and Bearcat revolvers.
- Final production through the end of this year “will continue through planned final production runs over the remainder of 2026. This applies to the following models: SR1911, LC Carbine, / PC Charger, PC Carbine / LC Charger, Redhawk, Super Redhawk, Blackhawk, Super Blackhawk. Single-Series revolvers, Vaquero, No. 1, 77-series rifles, Hawkeye and Ruger Precision Rifle.
- “Suspending production does not necessarily mean saying goodbye to these product families,” the Distribution Update says.
As noted in the Ruger message, “In many cases, we believe there are opportunities to bring important Ruger platforms forward through new designs, improved features, modern manufacturing methods and meaningful innovation.”
Most importantly the note to distributors says this: “We expect many of these names and product families to return in new forms in the months and years ahead.”
As author Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) was once quoted, “The report of my death was an exaggeration.”
Founded by the late William B. Ruger and Alexander M. Sturm in 1949, Sturm, Ruger & Company has become a giant in the firearms industry, domestically and internationally. It has been publicly traded since 1969, which is significant because the company has shareholders.
The notice to distributors notes, “Product line rationalization does not simply mean reducing the number of products we manufacture. It means continuously evaluating our portfolio against current consumer demand, evolving market preferences, manufacturing complexity, opportunities for modernization and innovation, and he long-term profitability of each product family. This allows us to focus our resources on the products consumers want most today while creating the capacity to develop the products they will want tomorrow.”
“It does not take a majority to prevail … but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brush fires of freedom in the minds of men.”
– Samuel Adams
October 14, 2026