Three children and a teacher died when a 16-year-old gunman opened fire at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, on October 15, 2026, US news outlets reported. The children were aged 5, 8 and 11. Police said a bystander shot and killed the suspect, and others were taken to hospital.
The attack came weeks before the US midterm elections. Writing in The Conversation, criminologists Kristin Lloyd of Clemson University and Jillian Turanovic of the University of Colorado Boulder point out that about six in ten of the nearly 50 million Americans between 18 and 29 who can vote say they intend to do so, a turnout that would be a record for under-30s in a midterm.
The two researchers surveyed nearly 1,700 people in that age group about gun laws and about their fear of mass shootings. Over 60% described themselves as moderately or highly afraid that they or a loved one might be caught up in one, and roughly 17% were highly afraid. About two-thirds backed requiring a permit for carrying a firearm in public and keeping firearms off college campuses. A similar share, about 60%, rejected the idea that more gun ownership improves safety.
Fear did not lead everyone to the same conclusion. For most respondents, greater fear went with stronger support for gun control. Young men, Republicans and political conservatives showed the reverse: for them, greater fear came with weaker support for restrictions.
Such attacks cause roughly 1% of US gun deaths, yet they weigh heavily on how safe people feel. A 2019 poll by the American Psychological Association found that close to eight in ten Americans felt stressed by the chance of a mass shooting. Researchers label today’s young adults the “massacre generation”: the first raised entirely in the era after 9/11 and Columbine, with lockdown drills part of school life.
Gun policy is also on the ballot in some states this fall. Voters in Massachusetts will decide whether to keep a 2024 state law that obliges gun owners to register their weapons, while Arkansas voters will be asked to strengthen constitutional gun rights, extending protection to ammunition and firearm components.
