Great Mills students rally against guns, meet with Hogan, Jealous
Jaxon O’Mara wishes she didn’t have to do this.
The 17-year-old Great Mills High School student wishes life could go back to the way it was before, when her friend Jaelynn Willey, 16, was still alive, and her Southern Maryland school hadn’t been added to the ever-growing list of shooting sites.
She wishes she didn’t have to lead rallies against gun violence like the one Saturday in Annapolis and push elected officials to do more to prevent gun violence.
“It’s been awful,” O’Mara said of life after Willey’s death. “It’s been hard and terrible and I shouldn’t have to do it, but I am doing it.”
Willey was killed when a 17-year-old student walked into the school with his father’s pistol just minutes before the first bell on March 20 and shot her in the head, according to the St. Mary’s County sheriff ’s office. That bullet also struck 14-year-old Desmond Barnes in the leg.
Since then, Great Mills High students have been thrust, reluctantly, into activism.
“I want to do something to make sure no other community has to go through this,” O’Mara said.
This week, O’Mara and her fellow students felt they had a breakthrough. Their Saturday rally drew dozens, despite pouring rain. And they met face-to-face with both leading candidates for governor: Republican Gov. Larry Hogan and his Democratic challenger, Ben Jealous.
The rally, organized by Students for a Safer Maryland, also honored the victims of the recent Capital Gazette shooting in which five newspaper employees were killed in a June 28 attack.
Before the rally, the students met with Capital reporter Selene San Felice, a survivor of the newspaper shooting. San Felice spoke later at the rally.
“I feel like it’s going to happen to every single person,” San Felice said of encountering a mass shooting.
The students’ meeting with Hogan Thursday was significant, O’Mara said, because she had been pushing to meet with the governor for months. Hogan surprised O’Mara by inviting her and three other students to the governor’s office this week, she said.
O’Mara said Hogan quickly agreed to reject any money or support from the National Rifle Association — a pledge his spokeswoman confirmed.
Hogan’s spokeswoman, Amelia Chasse, described the meeting with the students as a “very cordial” and “productive dialogue on an issue that these students are rightly passionate about.”
“The governor and the students found common ground on a number of issues, and discussed potential legislation the students plan to advocate for in the next session,” Chasse said. “The governor encouraged them to continue being active in the public sphere and fighting for their beliefs.”
Jealous met with the students at a Starbucks on Saturday before the rally and told them he would fight the NRA at every turn.
Jealous said he was an early proponent of “red flag” legislation, banning bump stocks, and closing loopholes in existing laws. The Democratic nominee also emphasized the importance of providing robust mental health services in Maryland.