Several high-profile Democratic lawmakers renewed calls for gun control after a teenager broke into an Oregon elementary school Thursday and fatally shot three children and a teacher before being killed by an armed bystander.
Sen. Ron Wyden, who has represented Oregon in the Senate since 1996, made one of the most explicit calls for tighter gun laws following the shooting at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, where the 16-year-old attacker used his mother’s shotgun, according to The Associated Press.
“The best way to honor these victims is to at long last pass common-sense gun laws that reduce the risks of more children, parents, teachers and staff forced to live in fear of similar nightmares for their schools,” Wyden said in a statement.
Suzanne Bonamici, D-Ore., said Thursday night that “the epidemic of gun violence in schools across America must come to an end.”
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“No parent should have to wonder if their child will come home at the end of the day,” Bonamici said. “Children deserve to feel safe — and be safe — in school.”
Democratic Rep. Janelle Bynum represents Oregon’s 5th Congressional District, which includes Bend. She attended a nighttime vigil for the teacher and children — aged 5, 8 and 11 — who were killed in the shooting.
“When are we going to step up and say enough of killing our babies? When are we going to say that we need safe schools, that we need to make sure that people who should not have firearms don’t have them? When are we going to stop making excuses? When are we going to practice that same bravery that that bystander had?” Bynum told KTVZ 21, a local NBC station in Bend, at the event.
Statements from Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and the state’s Democratic governor, Tina Kotek, stopped short of calling for new regulation on guns, but both made it clear gun violence should have no place in American schools.
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Democrats outside of Oregon appeared a bit freer to express support for going further on gun control, especially in the early aftermath of the shooting, which also left another child, 7, and a teacher, 54, critically injured.
Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., said the gun reforms Congress passed after the Uvalde school shooting — including enhanced background checks for buyers under 21 — did not go far enough.
“Much more must be done. Not a single child should be lost to gun violence. Ever,” Heinrich said in a statement posted to social media.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who supports federal red-flag laws and universal background checks, had a similar message.
“No family should ever have to suffer like this—and there have been over 50 school shootings just this year,” she wrote on social media. “Congress must do much more to prevent gun violence.”
The reactions from lawmakers came as authorities in Bend continue to piece together how the deadly attack unfolded and how the teenage gunman obtained the weapon he used.
Police said they did not know if the shooter knew anyone at the school or if he had attended when he was younger.
The first emergency call came at 12:59 p.m. from a person in a vehicle who reported being shot at multiple times by someone carrying a long gun, Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said Thursday. Dispatchers then received dozens of calls reporting that a shooter had entered the school.
Officers arrived within three minutes of the first emergency call. Moments later, an officer reported that a “community member” had shot the teenage suspect.
Silver Rail Elementary School, which is about 125 miles southeast of Portland, has a total of 467 students this academic year. It serves students in kindergarten through fifth grade.
After the shooting, students were bused to a nearby church that served as a family reunification center, where relieved parents embraced their children and walked them to their cars, some carrying stuffed animals and other comfort items they had brought from home, The Associated Press reported.
The Bend-La Pine school district canceled classes, sporting events and extracurricular activities Friday across all 32 of its schools.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.