Few mass shootings in the United States end like the deadly attack on a Oregon Elementary School: with an armed civilian opening fire on the shooter.
President Donald Trump joined others Friday in praising a father of two daughters who confronted a teenage gunman in the attack on Silver Rail Elementary School that killed three students and a teacher. Kenda Freeman said her son, Kaylub Giamanco, intervened by firing his own gun after the shooting began at his home. school for girls in the city of Bend.
“It’s a terrible thing, but thank God there was a man who had a gun and knew how to use it,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
Giamanco, a 36-year-old carpenter who had a .40-caliber pistol legally stored in his vehicle, entered the school, heard gunshots and fired his gun after seeing a teacher struggling with the shooter, Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said.
Cases like Oregon’s intervention remain rare, according to the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center at Texas State University.
The ALERRT center tracked what it calls “active attack” incidents in which the perpetrator used firearms, bladed weapons or vehicles between 2000 and 2025.
Of 634 cases studied, 374 ended before the police arrived. Of these attacks, 29 ended when armed civilians shot the attacker. In 31 other incidents, civilians subdued the attacker by other methods, such as throwing him to the ground or removing his weapon.
“They recognize that they may be the only way to stop this before law enforcement arrives,” said James Keith, a spokesman for the center.
The heroic “good guy with a gun” who can stop an attack before law enforcement even arrives has long been a rallying cry for gun rights advocates, arguing that armed citizens can act as the first line of self-defense and protection of the public. In some cases, the person who intervenes has undergone police or military training. Other times, they are simply people who reacted in a moment of chaos.
In some states, lawmakers have sought to put armed citizens in a position to ward off an attack in certain public spaces as quickly as possible.
Texas created a school trustee program in 2013 to allow trained teachers and staff to carry concealed firearms on campus. He expanded safety programs and requirements for security and armed personnel in schools after mass shootings at a high school. near Houston in 2018, and Robb Elementary School at Uvalde in 2022.
Texas has some of the least restrictive gun control laws in the country, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. The group ranks Oregon among the strongest.
Some prominent examples of armed citizens confronting gunmen to help stop mass shootings:
Twin Falls, Idaho, In-N-Out
A gunman killed three people and injured seven others during a Burger inside and out on August 3. Law enforcement officials said the shooter could have killed more if not for an off-duty police officer who was a customer at the restaurant and an armed civilian who exchanged gunfire with the shooter.
Jordan Salinas said he didn’t hesitate to grab his gun and confront the shooter when he saw people running from the restaurant and heard gunshots. Under fire from the return fire, the shooter withdrew and ultimately committed suicide.
“He didn’t like it when the bullets started flying both ways,” Salinas told the Idaho Statesman. “There is a task that must be done, and we are the ones who must do it.”
White Settlement, Texas, church shooting
In December 2019, a man wearing a disguise and trench coat pulled out a shotgun and killed two people during a Sunday service at the West Freeway Church of Christ before he was killed by Jack Wilson, a 71-year-old firearms instructor who had also been a reserve sheriff’s deputy.
Wilson remained calm as worshipers rushed for cover.
“The only clear shot I had was his head because I still had people on the benches who weren’t as low as they could go. That was my only shot,” Wilson said in 2019.
Sutherland Springs, Texas, church shooting
A gunman killed 26 people at a small-town church in 2017. Stephen Willeford, a former National Rifle Association instructor who lived across the street, grabbed his rifle and ran barefoot towards open fire on the attacker, injuring him.
The shooter fled and Willeford stopped a passing driver. The two men chased the shooter, who ended up committing suicide.
“I kept hearing the gunshots: pop, pop, pop” when the gunfire started at the church, Willeford said in 2017. “And I knew that each one of those shots represented somebody, that it was aimed at somebody.”
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