Ed. Note: This article incorrectly suggested that Governor Hogan did not thank the School Resource Officer in Maryland. Although not in the statement tweeted out, prior to publication of this article, Gov. Hogan did repeatedly thank law enforcement in total and specifically praised the School Resource Officer in a press conference. At the time of the tweeted statement, the details about the school resource officer were not public, but they were when he spoke at the presser. But the Governor has thanked those who risked their lives to protect kids. As do all of us at RedState.

By now, everyone has probably been brought up to speed on the Great Mills High School shooting, in St. Mary’s County, Maryland.

Joe Cunningham covered that story here.

The information at the time of this writing is scant, but what is being reported now is that a student opened fire, injuring 2 other students.

All this is happening just a bit over a month out from the Parkland, Florida school shooting that reignited the gun debate and has seen the left trot out survivors from the shooting to be the mouthpieces for the anti-gun/anti-NRA crowd.

Maryland Governor Larry Hogan issued a statement on the day’s events.

This is the response from Gov. Larry Hogan after school shooting at Great Mills HS in St. Mary’s County pic.twitter.com/KlgqtyXd7Z

— John Gonzalez (@ABC7John) March 20, 2018

In saying that he and his wife were praying for the community, Governor Hogan added this:

“But prayers are not enough,” he said.

“Although our pain remains fresh and the facts remain uncertain, today’s horrible events should not be an excuse to pause our conversation about school safety. Instead, it must serve as a call to action.”

He’s right. It shouldn’t be swept under the rug. It shouldn’t be written off as simply the way things are, now.

What would have been nice would have been if good Governor Hogan would have pointed out, and given credit to the school resource officer who was present, on the job, and armed.

Reports are that the officer confronted the shooter and took him out with his own firearm.

This is the “a bad guy with a gun is stopped by a good guy with a gun” thing.

It is a fact that Great Mills was not another Marjory Stoneman Douglas, precisely because of a gun – or more accurately, because of the training and efforts of the school resource officer with a gun.

That officer used the tools of his job correctly.

I’ll go as far as to say St. Mary’s Sheriff’s Department obviously has better leadership than that of Broward County, as well.

Prayers and acts of comfort and consolation are always a good thing, but when the praying and consoling are done, it’s time to talk about solutions.

What we know first of all, is that gun-free schools are not the answer. They’re the targets.

Will the students who are alive because of a good guy with a gun be allowed to speak out? Get a blue check on Twitter?

Will anybody, at all, properly commend the officer?

And who are the shooters? A lot of school shooters are students or former students of the schools they target.

Most are reported to be loners or outcasts. They were subject to bullying and otherwise marginalized.

I’m not saying Nikolas Cruz was a good guy and I don’t know this latest shooter’s story, at all. There does seem to be a pattern, however, and I don’t want to see another David Hogg interview, where he speaks as an expert from his place of very little world experience, before anybody asks him what he and his fellow survivors did to try and create an environment where Cruz didn’t feel so wrecked.

When Cruz’s mom died, what sort of [school] community effort was there to comfort and support this kid?

Yeah, there’s a lot of angles we could take on this, and those who want to have the conversation absolutely should.

But let’s not get carried away with this latest shooting, without recognizing that the outcome was very different than Parkland, for a reason.