We Must Change the Cultural View of Firearms as We Changed the Cultural View of Cigarettes

Rhoam Summer was among the shooting deaths at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon on the afternoon of Thursday, October 15, 2026. He was 5 years old. His father, Kelik Summer posted that night on his Facebook group:

“[It was] the worst day of my life. My son Rhoam was killed in a school shooting. We are broken and lost, but are surrounded by friends and family who are keeping us safe.”

Two other children — ages 8 and 11 — and a teacher were also killed in the shooting that day. A 7-year-old child and a 54-year-old teacher were rushed to St. Charles Medical Center with critical wounds. The remaining 400+ children boarded school buses and were driven to the arms of their distraught parents and other loved ones who were waiting in a nearby church used as a reunification center.

The suspect has been identified by Bend, Oregon law enforcement officials as John Griffin III, of Bend, Oregon. A bystander and father of two children who attend the school, Kaylub Giamanco, shot and killed the suspected shooter before police arrived on the scene. Though no motive has yet been found, reports have discovered that the gun used in the slaying was bought by the suspect’s mother.

This shooting, while still shocking, has become commonplace in the United States. We hear politicians and some members of the clergy giving their heartfelt “thoughts and prayers” while our legislators enact either severely watered down laws or refuse to tackle the issues of firearms safety at all.

The tragedy at Silver Rail Elementary School has increased the recorded number of mass shootings to 365 in the United States so far in 2026 with over 2 months remaining in the year. This marks approximately an 8% increase compared to the same period in 2025. A mass shooting is defined as one where 4+ people are shot and killed, excluding the shooter.

Litmus Test

I believe one of the litmus tests by which a society can be judged is the way it treats its young people, for this opens a window projecting how that society operates generally.

Regarding the topic of firearms, society’s litmus paper has turned a deep crimson blood toxic acidic Republican RED, indicating that the plague of gun slaughters will continue, while the United States remains the nation with the highest rate of firearms ownership of all the nations on the planet with 120.5 firearms per 100 residents. Broken down, this amounts to an average of 1.2 firearms for every person – adults and young people alike.

In second place comes the Falkland Islands with 62.1, Yemen third with 52.8, New Caledonia fourth with 42.5, and Serbia / Montenegro fifth with 39.1.

This mass killing in Bend, Oregon brings the total K-12 school shootings to 36 for 2026 as of October 16, and we see no common sense gun legislation, state and national, clearly on the horizon.

Ascendency in the Culture

When I was a child, both of my parents were heavy smokers, and so were my grandparents, my parents’ friends, as well as my friends’ parents. Many of my peers began smoking in middle school, some who were regularly suspended from school for a couple of days when discovered by teachers and administrators.

On daytime and primetime TV and radio, and in all the major and minor magazines, cigarette commercials and advertisements showing virile masculine men (the iconic cowboy hat adorned Marlboro man atop his steady steed) and idealized bodied smiling women (the Virgina Slims, “You’ve come a long way baby” attempted cooptation of the growing Women’s Movement).

By the mid-20^th century, cigarette advisements claimed tobacco’s supposed health benefits with pseudoscientific campaigns that inhaled cigarette smoke improved internal bodily functions, in particular in digestion, and in aiding energy flow.

In their “For Digestion’s Sake,” for example, Camel cigarettes, of the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, pushed a massive ad campaign declaring that smoking a Camel cigarette after meals increases the natural digestive process by stimulating stomach acids while easing tension.

The campaign included high-visibility celebrities, athletes, and business professionals. Throughout the 1940s, Camel’s “T-Zone” (Taste and Throat) advertisements implied that their cigarettes cleared the throat and made it more comfortable.

In addition to branding cigarettes as aids in digestion, some tobacco companies claimed that cigarettes increased the flow of energy in the body. In their “Get a Lift” marketing campaign, Camel, for example, ran ads asserting that smoking their product released a natural rush of energy that helped to beat back fatigue and maintain the “natural flow” of vigor and strength through difficult tasks.

With the introduction of their Old Joe the Camel cigarette campaign in 1988, R. J. Reynolds opened a controversy that would eventually signal a radical change in the cultural standing of tobacco.

The ad campaign featured a very “cool,” suave, and debonaire cartoon dromedary Camel who drove fast sports cars, wore stylish clothing, and hung out with A-listed celebrities. Parents’ and media groups began to charge the company with using Joe Camel to directly market to minors to prop up the company’s slumping sales.

Camel’s Toxic Acid Litmus Test is Showing

The prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published a groundbreaking study finding that 91.3% of six-year-old children could connect Old Joe the Camel with a cigarette. This matched the recognition rate of this demographic with Mickey Mouse.

Camel’s market share among teens surged following the Old Joe the Camel campaign climbing from approximately 2% to around 14%. The Federal Trade Commission charged R. J. Reynolds with illegally marketing to underage minors, and individuals mounted lawsuits. The company retired the Camel cartoon and closed the campaign officially in 1997.

Change of Culture

President Lyndon Baines Johnson in 1965, signed the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act, which mandated the warning “CAUTION: Cigarette Smoking May be Hazardous to Your Health” on packs starting January 1, 1966. By 1969, this was updated to: “Warning: The Surgeon General Has Determined That Cigarette Smoking Is Dangerous to Your Health.” And in 1984, it was replaced by four revolving warnings specific to various risks such as lung cancer and heart disease.

As public health educational efforts mounted and public awareness of the health risks increased, so did laws and private smoking bands that prohibited the smoking of tobacco products in many spaces, primarily indoors, but some outdoor spaces as well. Citing second-hand smoking health concerns, public places like restaurants, bars, office buildings, schools, hospitals, and some workplaces became smoke-free sites.

From the mid-1960s, with a national rate of about 42% to 45%, the adult smoking rate has dropped to a record low of 9% (9.9% in preliminary CDC data) in a 2024 research study.

This generational change from viewing smoking as “something everybody did,” as a health aid, and as a right in a free society to smoking as only what people who were slowly trying to commit suicide did, as something obstinate addicts failed to give up, and as products people who wouldn’t acknowledge the destructive health problems used has come about in a relatively short span of time.

The same cultural change can come about in a society that seriously alters its views of firearms from “something everyone does or should carry,” as a safety aid, and as a right in a free society to firearms as only what people who are selfish and don’t care about the lives of our children and adults own, and as products of people who don’t acknowledge the destructive effects of the Second Amendment as presently interpreted by the courts, by most firearms owners as dictated by the National Rifle Association, firearms manufacturers, and other lobbying groups and officials.

We changed the cultural discourse of tobacco products. We can do the same with firearms. Yes, cultural change is possible, even if ever so slowly. But how many more children have to die in the meantime?