I have been intentionally avoiding writing extensively about Kaylub Giamanco, the father who saw 16-year-old Griffin J. John II storm Silver Rail Elementary with a shotgun and pursued him inside to put an end to the carnage.
My hesitation was never out of disrespect for what he did that day but rather out of a genuine fear of what happens when the media lionizes an armed bystander. Glorifying these interventions tends to inspire untrained, overzealous civilians to rush into active shooter situations, inevitably creating scenarios where they end up causing far more harm than good.
A reader named John recently emailed me an interview Giamanco gave to Oregon Public Broadcasting and asked for my honest take on it, so here we are.
After reading his story, it becomes painfully clear that Kaylub Giamanco truly was the right man in the right place at the right time. Interestingly enough, both Giamanco and the teenage shooter came from remarkably chaotic, adversity-filled backgrounds. Giamanco’s father abandoned his family when he was just fifteen, forcing him as the oldest of seven children to step up and help his single mother navigate severe financial hardship.
Instead of allowing childhood trauma to curdle into bitterness and destruction the way John did, Giamanco channeled those early hardships into becoming a grounding force for his family and building an honest life as a local carpenter.
Their contrasting relationships with firearms tell you everything you need to know about the difference between a dangerous teen and a truly responsible citizen. John poured his entire warped identity and sense of purpose into the shotgun he used to murder four innocent people. Giamanco, on the other hand, had a handgun that was literally collecting dust in his truck’s center console, stored completely unloaded with the magazine stashed in a separate compartment.
Furthermore, Giamanco is far from the average, untrained civilian playing out a vigilante hero fantasy. After building a restaurant for an Iraq War veteran, that decorated soldier took Giamanco under his wing, arranging for an entire platoon to train him in military drills, tactical movement, and weapon handling.
Since the tragedy, Giamanco has mostly shunned the political spotlight, refusing to let partisan hawks use his name for gun-control grandstanding while focusing his energy on community healing and charity events.
So, to all the gun-toting yahoos out there who now dream of being the next hero in a school hallway, you need a serious reality check because you are not Kaylub Giamanco, nor are you anywhere close to being him.
Having said that, I am deeply concerned for his long-term mental well-being after reading his account of that afternoon. Crawling through a shot-out window while hearing terrified children plead for their lives and then having to take a human life, even a killer’s, leaves heavy emotional scars. Reliving those screams keeps him awake at night, and because he seems like a genuinely sensible, compassionate man, I sincerely hope he stays open to getting professional psychological help to process that trauma.
Where I respectfully part ways with Mr. Giamanco is his recent call for what he envisions as “smart schools.” In his interview, he questioned why we have smart homes and AI technology yet fail to outfit our educational facilities with high-tech defenses like AI gun detection, automated systems, and school resource officers.
Modern security measures like biometric locks, shot detection algorithms, and remotely piloted security drones are ultimately nothing more than expensive security theater that fails to address why these massacres happen in the first place. Kaylub Giamanco may very well be one of the rare, shining examples of an actual responsible gun owner, but the overwhelming majority of gun owners simply are not.
When those irresponsible gun owners leave weapons accessible to troubled teenagers, no amount of technology or school fortification is going to stop the bodies from piling up.
Thanks again to John for the tip.
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