Hasan Piker Wants Guns Locked Away From Kids After Oregon School Shooting

Streamer Hasan Piker said gun control has to start in the home. He called for rules that keep firearms out of children's reach after a 16-year-old killed three children and a teacher at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, using a shotgun his mother reportedly bought.

"It's like this was a legally acquired gun by a parent," Piker told viewers. "A part of reasonable gun control is to make sure that there's safety in the home, that these guns are not accessible for the kids in the household."

What Is Known About the Bend Shooting

The attack happened Thursday afternoon. Police say the teen first fired into a vehicle and then opened fire inside the school, his former elementary school, where he shot into a special education classroom. A 7-year-old girl and a second teacher were wounded, CBS News reported. According to police, a teacher threw her phone at the shooter and tackled him, and a parent who was legally carrying a pistol then shot and killed him.

CBS News and ABC News reported, citing sources, that the weapon was a Maverick 88 pump-action 12-gauge shotgun bought by the teen's mother. Police have not confirmed that. Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said the gun's origin is "what we're working on," ABC News reported. No charges have been announced against the parents, and Piker did not say any should be filed. His was a policy argument.

Hasan Piker's Case for Fewer Guns and Locked Storage

Piker said he has "repeated the same opinions for the last 13 years of my professional media career on a damn near weekly basis." He pointed to "kids that go and pick up their mom's guns" and argued that "we have to do something about the ready availability of weapons."

He also took on the armed bystander narrative. Even when a "good guy with a gun" acts quickly, he said, the "shooter still killed a bunch of children and teacher critically injured more."

He also faulted TV coverage that went straight from grieving parents to sympathy without any policy discussion. "There's not even a discussion about gun control. It's kind of crazy. Everybody just gave up," he said. Beyond storage, he called for reducing the number of guns in circulation and making them "more difficult to purchase."

Oregon's Safe-Storage Law Is Already on the Books

Piker said that in the U.S., "we have no regulation whatsoever, no restrictions whatsoever." Oregon is an exception on storage. Senate Bill 554, which took effect in September 2021, requires owners to secure a firearm with a trigger or cable lock, in a locked container or in a gun room whenever it is not under their control, according to Giffords Law Center's summary of state law. A gun does not count as secured if an unauthorized person can easily get the key or combination.

Violations are civil infractions, not crimes. The fine is up to $500, rising to $2,000 if a minor gets the unsecured gun, OPB reported. Giffords adds that the higher penalty applies when the owner knew or should have known a minor could access the firearm. That year, a Republican referendum drive to overturn the law fell short of the 74,680 signatures it needed.

Nationally, 26 states have secure storage or child-access-prevention laws, according to Everytown Research & Policy. Their strength varies.

Where School Shooters Get Their Guns

The research supports Piker's focus on the home. The U.S. Secret Service's National Threat Assessment Center studied 41 attacks at K-12 schools from 2008 to 2017. Of the 25 that involved firearms, 19 attackers, or 76 percent, took their guns from the home of a parent or close relative. In 12 of those 25 cases, the gun was accessible or "not secured in a meaningful way," PolitiFact found in its review of the report. In four more, the guns were locked up, but the attackers knew the combination or password.

What Happens Next

Investigators have not said how the teen got the shotgun, or whether it was locked up. Those answers will decide whether Oregon's storage law comes into play. They will also show whether the case strengthens Piker's argument or exposes the limits of a mandate backed by civil fines of up to $2,000.