A Good Guy with A Gun: The Truth About the Maryland Shooting

By Ready to Fire News On Mar 28, 2018

Although the gun-control debate continues to intensify after the Parkland school shooting, recent reports out of Maryland indicate that an armed school resource officer exchanged gunfire with a would-be school shooter (now dead), preventing this shooter from injuring any other students during his rampage.

This development vindicates the often-quoted idea that the best way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun, and has the potential to overcome anti-gun activists’ efforts to make students even more vulnerable.

Read on to learn more about how this incident is already shaping legislation around the country.

Good Guy with a Gun

On Tuesday, March 20, 2018, a seventeen-year-old student at Great Mills High School in Maryland opened fire in a school hallway, wounding two of his fellow students. Fortunately, an armed school resource officer was quickly on the scene and returned fire in a confrontation that quickly left the gunman dead.

This incident stands in stark contrast with the Parkland, Florida school shooting in February 2018, in which seventeen students were killed and another seventeen injured, some critically, while a resource officer sat idly outside the building. Since this tragedy, many have argued that arming teachers, rather than relying on outside law enforcement, is a viable way to prevent future casualties. However, the anti-gun lobby claims that measures like panic buttons, reinforced classroom doors, or metal detectors are sufficient to protect students from gunfire.

The Great Mills shooting clearly demonstrates that school shooting casualties can be greatly reduced, and shooters stopped in their tracks, when a “good guy with a gun” is immediately on the scene. Rather than expecting unarmed teachers to cower behind flimsy doors to protect their students, administrators and legislators should now see that the idea of schools as a “gun free zone” is not only illogical but potentially dangerous.

Proposals to Increase the Number of Good Guys with Guns

After February’s Parkland shooting, Maryland’s governor proposed emergency legislation to provide additional funding and training for armed school resource officers. This push toward school safety was certainly boosted after a Maryland school resource officer foiled a shooting in the governor’s proverbial backyard, and is likely to have enough popular support to pass.

Other states have begun to take additional measures to protect their most vulnerable citizens. Even where anti-gun advocates are pushing for stricter gun laws in states like Florida, other states, including Michigan, are focusing on boosting funding for law enforcement salaries, training, and equipment to hopefully decrease the number of fatalities in future school shooting attempts.

With these measures poised for likely success, those who advocate for schools to be gun-free zones are likely finding themselves near the end of an illogical battle that seems designed to disarm those in need of the greatest protection.

~ Ready to Fire News