Kotek Orders Schools to Push Storage Law Despite Its Own Flaws

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek is directing the state Department of Education to make schools educate parents about Oregon's mandatory storage law, in response to the Oct. 15 shooting at Silver Rail Elementary in Bend that left three students and a teacher dead.

Key points

• The directive: Kotek declared a state of emergency for Bend-La Pine Schools and High Desert Education Service District, freeing them from certain state requirements while also ordering education on the safe-storage law.
• Unanswered question: Investigators haven't said whether the shooter's mother, who reportedly bought the shotgun, violated the storage law, and Kotek admits she has no further details.
• The irony: Bearing Arms notes that a good guy with a gun reportedly had to break the same storage law to intervene and save lives during the attack.
• What got skipped: Bearing Arms points out that Kotek's fellow Democrats killed an armed-security-in-schools proposal last legislative session, an option the outlet argues would've done more good.

Quick take

Bearing Arms' Tom Knighton argues the response misses the obvious lesson: the storage law was already on the books and didn't stop this attack, yet the state's answer is more paperwork explaining that same law to parents. He frames it as a reflexive push to reinforce a failed policy rather than address what actually worked — armed intervention — or fix a law that can put responsible owners at legal risk for acting fast in an emergency.

Read the full story: bearingarms.com