The nation was rattled again last week with the shooting of students from Great Mills High School in Maryland.
Merely a month after the horrendous events in Florida at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, another disturbed young man took lives.
Seventeen innocent children lost their lives in Florida. And while three students were shot in Maryland, another name has been added to the final death count.
One of the victims, who was Rollin’s primary target, sadly died after being rushed to the hospital from a severe gunshot wound.
ABC 7 News reported:
“Jaelynn Rose Willey, the 16-year-old shot Tuesday at a Maryland high school in Great Mills, has died, the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office announced Friday morning.
Melissa Willey announced Thursday night during a news conference at University of Maryland Prince George’s Hospital Center that her daughter would be taken off life support.
As of now Jaelynn is still on life support, but she will not make it,” Melissa Willey said. “We will be taking her off life support this evening. She is brain dead. She has no life left in her.”
Jaelynn Willey died later that evening at 11:34 p.m., surrounded by her family, according to the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office.
“It is with heavy hearts and great sadness we provide this update,” they said in a statement.”
According to the authorities, 17-year-old Austin Rollins had a relationship with Jaelynn Willey that had just recently ended prior to her being shot in the head.
This is thought to be the motive for the events last Tuesday with the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office stating, “All indications suggest the shooting was not a random act of violence”, according to ABC 7 News.
Most school shootings aren’t random acts of violence. Evidence shows that in almost all of the recent school shootings the gunman premeditated the event.
In all of the cases, it has been found the shooter had a history of instability in some manner and had difficulties in school either academically or socially.
Mental disorders have been drastically rising each year in the United States, according to Psychology Today.
Liberals want to point to the gun, the inanimate object, as the cause for concern in instances like those in Florida and Maryland.
What about the troubled hand that picked it up? If the troubled mind that thought up these gruesome attacks is not addressed then the violence won’t end no matter how much gun control is implemented.
Rollins, also, died at the University of Maryland Charles Regional Medical Center after being confronted by school resource officer Blaine Gaskill, according to ABC 7 News.
Gaskill, who has extensive training as a SWAT team member, according to CBS News, responded to the gunshots in about a minute.
Simultaneous shots were fired between Gaskill and Rollins, where the situation became neutralized.
It is still being investigated whether it was Gaskill’s bullet that stopped Rollins or a self-inflicted wound.
ABC 7 News reported:
“According to a student witness, Rollins held the gun to his head and Gaskill ordered him to drop it.”
However, St. Mary’s County Sheriff Tim Cameron rightfully “credited Deputy First Class Blaine Gaskill with preventing any more loss of life”, reported Fox News.
Schools would be better off with officers like Gaskill watching over them, where threats would be addressed and stopped quickly before mass casualties ensue.
Desmond Barnes, the other gunshot victim who was struck in the leg, was released the next day from MedStar St. Mary’s Hospital.
It is nearly unbearable what the Willey family must go through having lost a beloved daughter.
Fox News reported:
“On Tuesday … our lives changed completely and totally forever,” Melissa Willey said. “My daughter was hurt by a boy who shot her in the head and took everything from our lives.”
Citizens must work together to create a realistic plan to stop troubled youth from taking lives in their despair. And the fact of the matter is that it starts in the home.
Parents and caregivers should not rely on the government or the school system to be monitoring their children’s health and well-being.
Please let us know in the comments section what you think of the Maryland shooting outcome, or how schools would benefit from armed security.