High School Senior Tradition Turns Deadly: Shooting Leaves Community in Shock

The adults who created this culture of indifference to human life have no idea what to do about it. Some would use it as an excuse to disarm law-abiding citizens, while others merely spew platitudes without ever getting to the heart of the matter.

According to WBAL-TV, a large “senior skip day” gathering at a park in Greenbelt, Maryland, turned violent when five teenagers were shot in the middle of the afternoon on Friday.

Greenbelt Police Chief Richard Bowers called it “a horrible, senseless, tragic act.”

“There is absolutely no reason that this occurred. It is senseless. It is chronic in our society, and we have to do something to stop it,” he added.

Nearly everyone agrees on the “chronic” problem of violence that ails our society. Agreement breaks down, however, on the “something” required to solve it.

Indeed, Greenbelt Mayor Emmett Jordan also lamented the present state of affairs. Like Bowers, however, the mayor stopped short of identifying the core problem.

“If a group of high school students cannot get together and have a good time — what is the world coming to” Jordan said, according to the Associated Press.

According to Bowers, 500 to 600 students gathered in the park for a water gun fight — a kind of tradition for local high school seniors that has occurred without incident in the past.

By Sunday, three of the five victims — all teenage boys — had been released from the hospital. Two others remained hospitalized in stable condition. One of the two had been upgraded from critical condition, per WTTG.

Witness Dave Bimbai described the scene on Friday afternoon.

“A bullet don’t discriminate, and everybody was scared,” Bimbai said.

The sheer size of the gathering, including police officers who were there for crowd control, added to the confusion.

“It was a ton of people. I wanted to leave, but I couldn’t leave because I didn’t know where to go,” Bimbai said.

“The pop of the gun made me freak inside. I couldn’t get out to run, because where are you going to run?” he added.

Bimbai also recalled first responders giving CPR to one of the victims.

“I’m so thankful because that guy was in deep trouble. If there wasn’t CPR, I don’t think he’d make it,” Bimbai said.

Witness describes chaos of Senior Skip Day shooting in Greenbelt that left 5 teens injured https://t.co/tuuqfSXJJv

— FOX 5 DC (@fox5dc) April 21, 2024

As of Sunday, police had yet to identify the assailant, whom they believe to have acted alone.

Meanwhile, Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks also commented on the shooting.

“It’s so unfair. It’s so unfair that these kids now have to feel that it’s unsafe for them to enjoy what really is a natural part of childhood,” Alsobrooks said.

Alsobrooks emphasized the need to prevent the wrong people from getting access to guns.

Of course, no sensible person would dispute the broader sentiment behind such comments. Ideally, troubled young people with violent intentions would not have weapons in their possession.

On the other hand, millions of people with no such troubles or intentions have safely owned firearms. In exercising the one right that guarantees all others, they have provided the only meaningful check on their own government.

Disarmament, therefore, constitutes the one red line that citizens cannot permit public officials to cross. After all, disarmed citizens hold their liberties at a government’s pleasure, and that makes them subjects.

Thus, the “something” we must do to “stop” such “senseless” and “chronic” violence cannot focus on the weapons. We need fewer troubled young people with violent intentions, not fewer guns in citizens’ hands.

At some point, public officials must tell the truth about a culture that shamelessly promotes violence and even glorifies infanticide. Doing so offers the only path by which both peace and freedom may flourish.