Velshi Cues Democrats to Call for Irrelevant Gun Laws After Bend Shooting

On Thursday's The 11th Hour, in the aftermath of the Bend, Oregon, school shooting, MS NOW host Ali Velshi gave a forum to State Representative Justin Pearson (D-TN) and Congresswoman Janelle Bynum (D-OR) to call for gun laws that are not even relevant to the case or even already exist in the state.

As the MS NOW host led with the story, he only vaguely mentioned that the gunman was "shot and killed by a community leader" before spending the rest of the segment pushing for more gun laws.

He then brought aboard Pearson -- who is also a congressional candidate -- as a guest, and, although the Tennessee Democrat nearly incited a riot in the state capitol in 2023, leading to a temporary expulsion from the state legislature, Velshi blandly described him as being targeted by Republicans for "leading a gun control protest" in the capitol. 

After Pearson recalled losing friends from shootings. Velshi fretted:

And this is part of the problem that it is -- it is not just our reality, but we know exactly how this plays out over the next 12 hours, 24 hours, 72 hours the next week. There will be remarkable, sincere expressions of grief. There will be calls to have this stop, but it doesn't really stop. And that's the problem that we have allowed this to become our reality.

Even though the gunman in Oregon was a 16-year-old who allegedly got the murder weapon from his mother, Pearson pushed for more requirements for gun training before being being allowed to purchase a firearm:

Yeah. And, I mean, you're going to see a lot of elected officials who offer thoughts and prayers and try and convince us that there's some sincerity to it. But when you're in an elected position, the opportunity is really in your hands to do something to make sure that people don't have access to firearms who should not have it, that people get simple training before they're even able to purchase a firearm.

He then went after the NRA:

And that's an issue that Republicans, Democrats and independents alike agree upon. But we've allowed the infusion of the NRA and their affiliates to really impact our politics in such a way that it has crippled us in our ability to address one of the leading causes of death for children under the age of 18 in the state of Tennessee, but also across the country, which is a gun injury.

After Velshi further complained that the gun industry "has worked so hard to suppress the measurement of gun violence," he then asked Pearson what he would do on the issue if he became a congressman, leading the Democrat to recommend more laws not relevant to the Oregon case:

... in Congress, my goal and aim is going to be to end the gun violence epidemic. And we know the things that work. We can pass a national extreme risk protection order so that people who are a danger to themselves or to -- to others don't have access to firearms. We can make sure that if you purchase a firearm, you actually have to do a thorough background check before receiving that firearm. And we can mandate that anyone who purchases one has a permit in order to be able to carry.

The MS NOW host went on to complain about NRA influence. No one thought to suggest that, if school staff had been armed, the attack might not have happened, or someone might have had time to intervene before anyone was killed.

Near the end of the show, Velshi spoke with Congresswoman Bynum, who represents part of Bend, Oregon, who called for safe storage laws, and demanded that opponents of gun control "take their head out of the sand."

It was not mentioned that Oregon has had a safe storage law since 2021, and that the state also already has universal background check and gun permitting requirements! When those laws aren't effective, why can't MS NOW recognize "our reality"? 

Transcript follows:

MS NOW's The 11th Hour

October 15, 2026

11:01 p.m. Eastern

ALI VELSHI: It is Thursday, October the 15th. I'm Ali Velshi, and we begin tonight with tragedy in Bend, Oregon, as America contends with another mass shooting targeting our children. This is what we know as of now: According to police, officers responded to reports of an active shooter at Silver Rail Elementary School around 1 p.m. local time today. Police later confirmed that three children -- ages five, eight and 11 -- died in the school -- the school shooting.

One adult, a teacher, is also dead. Another teacher and another child, aged seven, have been taken to the hospital to be treated for critical injuries. The shooter is identified only as a 16-year-old suspect, according to police. The identities of his victims have not been released yet. Police say a first call reported an unknown man had shot multiple times into a car with a long gun. A minute later, multiple 911 calls reported that a person entered the school and had started shooting.

Within seconds of arriving on the scene, Bend police said the suspect appeared to have been shot and killed by a community member. Silver Rail Elementary School holds between 400 and 450 students, with an estimated 40 faculty members, according to the police. The local school district announced that all schools will close tomorrow, and all school activities have been canceled. Bend's mayor, Melanie Kebler, expressed her community's horror after today's events.

MELANIE KEBLER, MAYOR OF BEND, OREGON: A school should be a safe place where children can learn and feel secure. What happened today should never happen. Like so many in our community, I'm struggling to make sense of a loss that feels unimaginable.

VELSHI: Joining me now is Justin Pearson. He's a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives. Republicans, you will remember, tried to expel him and two other colleagues from the legislature back in 2023 for leading a gun control protest on the state house floor. He is now the Democratic nominee for Congress in Tennessee's 9th Congressional District. Representative Pearson, thanks for being with us. I'm sorry this is the occasion that we have to talk about, but I need to talk to you about this because school shootings have been and sort of the use of guns in these -- these things has been sort of a motivating factor for your continued involvement in politics.

STATE REPRESENTATIVE JUSTIN PEARSON (D-TN): Yeah. I've been fighting to end the gun violence epidemic for years, having lost my classmate, my mentor, my cousin to gun violence. And even a few years ago, I got expelled out of the state house because we were standing up after a mass shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville. This doesn't have to be our reality, and the fact that it is, is really a failure of people in positions of power.

VELSHI: And this is part of the problem that it is -- it is not just our reality, but we know exactly how this plays out over the next 12 hours, 24 hours, 72 hours the next week. There will be remarkable, sincere expressions of grief. There will be calls to have this stop, but it doesn't really stop. And that's the problem that we have allowed this to become our reality.

STATE REPRESENTATIVE PEARSON: Yeah. And, I mean, you're going to see a lot of elected officials who offer thoughts and prayers and try and convince us that there's some sincerity to it. But when you're in an elected position, the opportunity is really in your hands to do something to make sure that people don't have access to firearms who should not have it, that people get simple training before they're even able to purchase a firearm.

And that's an issue that Republicans, Democrats and independents alike agree upon. But we've allowed the infusion of the NRA and their affiliates to really impact our politics in such a way that it has crippled us in our ability to address one of the leading causes of death for children under the age of 18 in the state of Tennessee, but also across the country, which is a gun injury.

VELSHI: But even that, those statistics are hard to come by because the industry has worked so hard to suppress the measurement of gun violence and what causes it. There's -- it is a solvable problem, Representative Pearson, it's a solvable problem if you get elected to Congress. What can happen to try and really solve this problem, not just express thoughts and prayers?

STATE REPRESENTATIVE PEARSON: Yes, in Congress, my goal and aim is going to be to end the gun violence epidemic. And we know the things that work. We can pass a national extreme risk protection order so that people who are a danger to themselves or to -- to others don't have access to firearms. We can make sure that if you purchase a firearm, you actually have to do a thorough background check before receiving that firearm.

And we can mandate that anyone who purchases one has a permit in order to be able to carry. These are simple, common sense things that we could do that we know would save lives. And in states that have weaker gun laws, we know that, on average, 500 children die a year. It does not have to be this way in the United States of America. And we can't allow ourselves to let this tragedy and trauma be normalized as a part of our reality.

VELSHI: You know, we heard a lot of candidates in this election cycle talk about not taking corporate PAC money or large influence PAC money. It's kind of funny because the NRA has slipped out of that discussion a little bit. The fact is, while people across the political spectrum agree on common sense measures to -- to -- to make guns a safer thing in America, there is still a remarkable pressure on people who take money from the NRA and its associated PACs to not move on this topic.

STATE REPRESENTATIVE PEARSON: Yes. Which is why we have to take big money out of politics. The fact that the NRA and its affiliates are still able to have so much impact at the state level and at the federal level, is a consequence of a broken political system that works for the billionaires, works for the big corporations and the industry lobbyists like that, and not the people. Because the truth of the matter is, if you go to the gun range where my wife and I go, a lot of those people are Republicans and libertarians, and they say one of the worst laws ever passed in the Tennessee state house was to give someone access to a firearm without a permit.

We know what's necessary and needed in our community to keep us safe, but we have people who are in positions and offices right now who are listening more to the corporate class and to the billionaire class than to the people who don't want these tragedies to become their reality. And when my mom, who's a teacher for 25 years, goes to work every day, my prayer is that we don't get this type of phone call. Being a teacher shouldn't be a hazardous occupation.

VELSHI: There is one teacher who is dead tonight. There's another teacher who is in critical condition. There's another student in critical condition. There are three -- three children. Children. Let's even not -- forget the student thing -- there are children who are dead tonight. It just shouldn't be a public hazard to go to school. And it shouldn't be a public hazard for your mother to go and teach in school.

But the problem is, when you talk about the people who are influenced by money, it's important to remind people the NRA has a rule, and that is, if they support you, Justin Pearson if you move one inch toward anything -- you could still be a proponent of the Second Amendment, you can be a gun owner, you could be in favor of gun rights, you just want things to become a little bit safer -- they'll turf you.

STATE REPRESENTATIVE PEARSON: That's absolutely right. And in Tennessee, we've seen that happen. They -- they primary you -- they find a more radical, more extreme candidate. And then they make sure that they get elected to office, which is where people really have to do the work of reclaiming our democracy.

Because on election day, in early voting, like it is right now in Tennessee, this is the great equalizer. Whether you're a billionaire or you have no money at all, you are able to go and cast a ballot for people who align with your values. But, again, for children, for teachers, it shouldn't be a reality that they can lose their lives showing up at school.

VELSHI: Justin Pearson, thanks for joining me tonight. Justin Pearson is a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives and the Democratic candidate for Congress in Tennessee. We'll be right back.

(...)

11:57 p.m.

VELSHI: What -- what will and can the community do? I've covered too many of these things with communities that have said things that your community said, that we didn't expect this to happen here. Nobody ever does. And yet they -- and they happen. What happens now? What does Bend feel like tomorrow?

CONGRESSWOMAN JANELLE BYNUM (D-OR): So Bend has been through this, unfortunately. There was a grocery store shooting a number of years ago -- not in very -- the very far past, actually. I think it's being vigilant about people in the community who may be showing signs of distress. It's about mental health. It's also about safe storage. It's about making sure that we, especially as moms, that we demand safer gun laws and that people who have opposed them take their head out of the sand. Our children are dying. They're getting shredded in schools. They're being killed at grocery stores. They can't live a free and full life. That is not the American freedom these people claim that they're seeking. That's killing our children.

VELSHI: Do you think there's -- I mean, obviously you come from there, so this is going to be an emphasis for you in the new Congress. Do you think there's enough momentum in -- in Congress to do more?