Students at South Carolina State University were immediately put on lockdown as soon as staff received word of a shooting this past Friday. Nineteen-year-old Justin Bernard Singleton was arguing with 20-year-old Brandon Robinson outside of Hugine Suites, an on-campus dorm. As for now, the cause of the argument is unknown, but Singleton ended it by shooting Robinson in the neck area, leaving him dead.
Robinson was a junior outside linebacker and defensive end for the university’s football team. According to CBS Sports, his coach, Buddy Pough said that Robinson was “a fine young man who was paying his way through college. All he wanted to do was play football for the university.” He was also majoring in industrial engineering technology.
Thankfully, no other students or staff were harmed by Singleton. Police immediately took him into custody after locating the sophomore gunman, and the university is once again safe and sound. S.C. State is only located less than 45 minutes from the University of South Carolina in Columbia, too close for comfort.
Within only a week there have been other shootings around the country. In Indiana, a student at Purdue University was shot and stabbed to death on Tuesday. Just the day before that, a student was shot at Widener University in Pennsylvania. In addition to those, there were shootings at high schools in Philadelphia and Georgia, and even at a middle school in New Mexico. At Columbia Mall in Maryland, two people were shot and killed as well as the gunman himself.
It’s clear there is a growing problem with not only gun control, but helping troubled students as well in America. It is unacceptable for so many violent crimes like these to continue to happen, especially in such a short time period. The government definitely needs to do more about making it much harder for people to get a hold of a gun. It’s scary to think that anyone can just walk in, fill out an application, and own a gun.
People should also be more aware of warning signs that a friend or family member could be mentally ill or depressed. Most of the people that commit crimes like these don’t have anyone that notices something wrong and can get them help. Something needs to be done, because America can’t keep losing such innocent lives.