A shooting incident on the campus of hospital in Delaware County, Thursday afternoon have left two injured and one dead.
At approximately 2:30 p.m. alleged gunman Richard Plotts of Upper Darby opened fire in the psychiatric unit of the wellness center on the Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital campus, grazing 52 year-old psychiatrist Lee Silverman and killing a 53 year-old female caseworker of Philadelphia, said Delaware County District Attorney Jack Whelan.
Officials reported that Silverman returned fire, shooting Plotts multiple times and critically injuring him. Plotts was a patient and suffered "psychiatric issues," said Whelan.
"Buyers that purchase firearms through private sales in the U.S. don't have to pass a background check before obtaining possession of the weapon. This includes sales to criminals, felons, and people with a history of severe mental illness."
I'm used to watching the footage from other scenes with similar stories. A foreign setting, with people I don't know. A school, a movie theater, a mall, etc...
Tragedies like these always create more questions than answers, and one question that always crops up: How do we prevent these incidents?
Incidents of this kind are becoming more frequent, so what do we do? Regulate the guns? Regulate the people?
The sad truth of these events is that law enforcement can only react as swiftly as possible to these calls. Officers from Darby and Yeadon boroughs secured the campus in a very timely manner, according to Whelan.
The gun-weilding doctor "'without a doubt saved lives,'" said chief of the Yeadon Police Department Donald Molineux.
It's easy to see how a psychiatrist would potentially be in danger dealing with mentally unstable patients, but should they be armed? Should teachers or school security guards? Or, ushers at movie theaters?
Are more guns really the answer to the gun issue?
"Since 1950, every public mass shooting (with the exception just 1) in the U.S. has occurred in a place where civilians are banned from carrying firearms."
- DoSomething.Org
Monday the Philadelphia Phillies installed a metal detector to the right-field entrance of Citizen Bank Park, and next season there will be metal detectors at all of the stadium's entrances as part of a league-wide safety initiative.
As a product of several public school systems I am no stranger to the lengthy lines of metal detectors. I went to three different high schools, and at three different high schools I had to wait in line to be scanned and searched.
It sucked. Sunshine, rain, snow, hail...waiting outside to be processed. They even confiscated hooded sweaters at one of my high schools because it interfered with facial recognition on security footage. But, after going through a gun scare my freshman year I knew these precautions were necessary.
As I get older they are becoming more necessary, EVERYWHERE.
The world is a scary place, and I urge everyone to be safe, but don't live in fear. Though there may be evil, there is also good.
