Every time a young person opens fire at a school, the same question follows: Where did they get the gun? That question came up again after a 16-year-old killed three children and an educator at Silver Rail Elementary School on Oct. 15 in Bend, Oregon.
The answer is predictable, because we’ve heard this story before. In 2021, a 15-year-old killed four classmates at Oxford High School in Michigan with a gun bought by his parents. In 2024, a 14-year-old killed two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Georgia with a rifle his father gave him. In Bend, the shooter used a gun purchased by his mother, authorities say.
In at least 7 out of 10 school shootings in the U.S. since 1999, the shooter has been younger than 18. When the U.S. Secret Service studied targeted attacks on K-12 schools, it found that in about 3 out of 4 cases involving a firearm, the attacker took it from the home of a parent or close relative.
Most school shootings don’t start with a minor shopping at a gun store. They start with a gun brought into the home by an adult, believing it would make the family safer.
After shootings like these, calls for gun owners to keep their guns locked, unloaded and separate from ammunition are common. That advice matters, and campaigns to promote it are worthwhile. But it runs into a hard truth: Most people buy a gun to protect themselves and their family
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. It is very hard to convince someone to keep something locked and out of reach when they bought it to be ready in an emergency.That’s why storage habits are so stubborn. Most gun owners see themselves as responsible, yet more than half don’t store all of their guns securely. And research has found that nearly 40% of parents in gun-owning homes believe their kids can’t get to a gun when the kids say they can.
Despite years of campaigns to educate gun owners about secure storage, behaviors have barely budged. A study published this year found that storage practices appear to have become less secure in recent decades, with 2.1 million more children in the U.S. living with an unsecured gun today than a decade ago.
In Bend, the violence ended when a teacher tackled the shooter to the ground, allowing a dad who’d followed the shooter into the school to shoot and kill him. It is a relief that it ended before more lives were taken. But we shouldn’t treat it as a win. Three children and an educator are dead, and another community is left traumatized. No amount of gun violence in an elementary school is acceptable.
If we want safer schools and communities, we have to start with understanding the beliefs that drive Americans’ decisions with guns. The research is consistent: People who live in a home with a gun face a higher risk of dying by suicide, homicide or other gun-related tragedies. The gun meant to protect a family is far more likely to be used against someone inside it.
That is not the story most Americans grow up hearing. Entertainment, gun industry marketing and elected leaders of both parties tell us that safety comes from being armed.
There is also a well-documented school safety industry rising up, making what was once a simple walk into school feel more like going through airport security. But hardening schools and practicing lockdown drills, among other steps to reduce school shootings, are not making young people feel safer.
Meanwhile, little has been done to educate young people about guns and the risks they pose before their attitudes and beliefs about gun use have solidified. Changing how adults think about any polarizing, politicized topic is an uphill battle, to say the least. But young people are different.
Earlier this year, Project Unloaded, a nonprofit I started, worked with ISG Research to evaluate our campaigns designed to educate teens on Snapchat on the risks of having a gun. We found that teens who saw our campaign were 17% more likely to believe they were safer unarmed and 21% more willing to talk to a friend about the risks of having a gun. Our community partner programs, which have reached more than 950 teens in Chicago since 2023, produce similar shifts.
It is possible to reach a future where school shootings are discussed in history lessons, and not morning headlines. Getting there starts with changing what we believe keeps us safe.
Nina Vinik is founder of Project Unloaded. She lives in Chicago.
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