Resource Officer Blaine Gaskill: The Good Guy with a Gun Who Stopped MD High School Shooter

Deputies, federal agents and rescue personnel, converge on Great Mills High School, the sc
AP Photo/Alex Brandon

The good guy with a gun who stopped the Maryland High School shooter Tuesday was 34-year-old Resource Officer and Deputy First Class Blaine Gaskill.

Gaskill ran toward Great Mills High School, shooting at the alleged attacker — 17-year-old Austin Wyatt Rollins — and ending the incident.

The New York Post reports that St. Mary’s County Sheriff Tim Cameron said, “[Gaskill] had to cover significant ground. The premise is simple: You go to the sound of gunfire.” CNN quoted Cameron saying, “[Deputy First Class] Gaskill fired at the shooter … almost simultaneously as the shooter fired. This is something we train, practice and in reality, hope would never come to fruition. This is our worst nightmare.”

Because of Gaskill’s swift action, the “entire incident” lasted less than a minute. Sadly, two students were shot and injured, one critically, before Gaskill was able to end Rollins’ attack.

On November 5, 2017, a  good guy with a gun likewise ended the heinous attack on First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas. That good guy, Stephen Willeford, grabbed an AR-15 and ran toward the sound of gunfire upon learning the attack was underway. Once at the church, he took up a defensive position and shot at the attacker, striking him and causing him to flee.

The NRA has long contended that “the only the thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.

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