As a mother of a 16 year old son who attends LDHS, I have to agree with the student of Atlee; however, I have communicated with my son numerous of times and tell him to be cautious on who you trust and do what with.  This a an era of time where we need to mentor our children on guidance, awareness and protection.  Our kids are going to do the same thing that we did when we were their age; however, the “stuff” that is out there now…is not same when we were their age…it’s just not safe and too many young lives are being taken. The recent event was   unfortunate and sad, for all parties involved, a young life should not have been taken and we all grieve and send our condolences to the family of Brett Wells!  Lets hope that all parents with teenagers will communicate with our kids to protect and make a better and safer future for our children and grandchildren.  One parent cannot do this alone…we all have to stand together and guide our children forward.  Keeping the Wells’ family in our thoughts and prayers…always!

What I don’t understand is how a 16 year old can sell drugs out of his home and his parents not have a clue????  Something is not right about this.  And then of course there is the fact that anyone can get a gun at the drop of a hat, and the laws on carrying guns are getting less and less strict by the day.  You can pretty much carry a gun anywhere these days.  With so many people owning guns it’s pretty easy for kids to get their hands on one.  It’s much easier to kill someone during the commission of a crime when you have a gun or even kill someone whenever you have an arguement.  You’re mad, you grab a gun, you shoot and then it’s oh no what did I do?  If these kids hadn’t had a gun, they may have robbed the boy of the drugs but he probably would be alive today and these kids wouldn’t be facing murder charges and life in prison for a few minutes of studidity.  I see a couple of people responsible here - the boy’s parents who either didn’t know he was selling drugs out of their home (or didn’t have a problem with it) and the law makers who keep making it easier for anyone to get a gun.  Bottom line - this country (and the world) is going to hell in a handbasket and if we don’t wake up and do something about it, there won’t be anyone left.

So I have a couple of questions?? 30 minute CPR by the shot in the hand male?? So am I to believe it took our fine rescue sqad /police that long to get there?  The warrant says the drugs were still at the residence?? Were other drugs stolen?? Why 30 min??

Everyone seems focused on the marijuana.  You’re in fantasy land if you believe teenagers are not experimenting and/or using marijuana.  What should concern you is that there are 3 young adults that sat around one day and planned to commit a felony with a weapon with the intent to instill fear, cause harm and even murder someone without any thought to the value of someone’s life.  These are the same individuals (and others like them) that are out in the community committing crimes against the public and it’s not just over marijuana!  If these guys are at this level now what is their next step when they want something that isn’t theirs.  You need to look past the forest to see the trees.  The Richmond City limits are closer than you think.  Everyone should be hoping and praying that the fine officers involved in evidence collection has been deligent in their efforts to ensure these 3 guys are on death row and/or behind prison bars for the remainder of their lives.  Because if they are not, then how long is it before they are in your neighborhoods and maybe this time it’s your child and/or family member that is a victim.

Multiple news stories state that the second, unnamed victim performed CPR for 30 minutes after Wells was shot.
  But nowhere have I seen anything about medical help called to the scene.  Did anyone still at the house after the shooting call 911 or did the police only show up because neighbors reported they heard shots fired?

I think that readers here need to pay attention to what “Atlee Graduate of far away from hanover” has shared.  There is something spot on about his/ her message.  How many of you have heard the radio ad that supports the idea that “the more often you have dinner with your kids, the less likely they are to smoke, drink or use drugs.” (Jamie Lee Curtis may be the narrator.) At his core, Brett was a good boy.  His parents are also good people.  What can the families of Mechanicsville learn from this tragedy?

The truth is simply this, there should be no limits or boundaries when it comes to preventing a recurrence of this kind of tragedy. Whatever is necessary is what each responsible adult should pledge to do to stop it and stop it now. Hate the sin, not the sinner. One is dead, one is injured and 3 have had their lives ruined. When is it going to be enough.

@ Concerned parent: Civil liberties have been in decline in this country in the name of safety for over a decade now. To argue for more restrictions is taking one step closer to handing over complete control to the establishment. As stated before open lines of communication with your child will do more to prevent them from participating in inappropriate behavior than tighter restrictions.  The school systems already have dogs conduct searches on school grounds yet the fact of the matter is they rarely come up with any substantial busts. Most kids who choose to sell Cannabis are not dumb enough to carry and sell large quantities in school.  Most busts are small amounts of possession that the kid probably forgot was in his bag.  Dog searches treat every student as a suspect when they have given no reasonable suspicion or evidence to be treated as such (which is a violation of the 4th and 14th amendment).
Your arguments that there should be zero tolerance for illicit substance use and that “pot” is illegal therefore dangerous does not follow a logical progression. If zero tolerance worked in deterring people from experimenting with illicit substances than we would see evidence showing a decline of use among our youth. Unfortunately we are seeing the exact opposite.
I am not sure exactly what you meant by the second argument but I am assuming you mean to say the substance Cannabis is illegal therefore the substance itself is dangerous and that is simply not valid.  Take a look at two very popular controlled substances in our society, Alcohol and Tobacco. Both of these substances are incredibly harmful to the body and are involved with taking hundreds of thousands of lives each year. Why are these substances not illegal? Why was the 18th amendment repealed? Because it was evident that the government was powerless to stop the use of these substances and that regulating them provided more taxable income than the prohibition of it. Cannabis should be seen in the same light here.
If by your argument you intended to conclude that the actions surrounding Cannabis are dangerous because it is illegal than I would agree. Too often respectable citizens have to deal with criminals whose number one priority is to turn a profit and who have no concern for their customers. And the illegality of the substance can lead to further harmful crimes, such as the killing of a youth in an attempt to steal product.
Again, I argue that we should be calling for better education and legislative reform, NOT tighter restrictions.
And I agree with the rest of your statement, parents do indeed need to wake up and start communicating with their children openly.

I like the idea of dogs, random searches, stricter controls in the schools. Are kids bringing guns or knives to school to protect their stash? There should be zero tolerance for any sort of illegal drugs. Bottom line pot is illegal therefore dangerous. Wake up parents what are your children doing tonight? Where are they and who are they with? Let us make a effort to fix this in Hanover!
Condolences to all the families.

I think we can all agree that the events that took place this past Saturday were tragic to say the least.  A young person’s perspective was with out a doubt cut short and it has left the community in a state of shock. However, I believe there are some out there with misguided interpretations about how this event came to take place. Yes, this person was shot over a dispute of Cannabis but it was not the substance itself that put these events into action, it was the prohibition of the substance in question. 
For those of you who believe in Creationism you only have to look at the story of Eve eating the apple after God’s direct prohibition not to, to see that prohibition does NOT work.  We also saw evidence of this with the 18th Amendment (prohibition of alcohol).  During this time organized crime sky rocketed and a handful of criminals made off with millions of non-taxed profit. After seeing that prohibition of alcohol was a complete failure, it was inevitably repealed thirteen years later by the 21st amendment. 
The legislation involving the illegality of Cannabis was not created because of the “harmful effects” that the establishment tries to preach today but by racist slander and by people with special interests (ex. William Hearst, owner of a newspaper and paper mill) threatened by such a versatile cash crop.
An event such as this should not have citizens calling out for tighter restrictions but for reform of out dated legislation and out dated (Regan, Just Say NO-era) research.  An event such as this should not place the blame on school systems but should call out parents for not being involved with the on goings of their children. An event such as this should call for better education on substance use and abuse for both illegal and legal substances (the abuse of legal pharmaceuticals in today’s youth is far more rampant than Cannabis abuse).
This education should not come from a police officer whose occupation consists of enforcing laws and whose way of teaching students about drug use is to say “drugs are bad and illegal so don’t do them” but by well educated substance councilors who have the ability to actually inform students what different substances consist of chemically and how their brain/body reacts to such chemicals.
If we had legislation on the books that regulated the sale and production of Cannabis, getting into the hands of minors would be much more difficult. It would take the power out of the hands of criminals and make the organized crime surrounding Cannabis obsolete and less appealing.
To argue the Just-Say-No approach in response to this event is ludicrous.  The fact is, for thousand of years humans have consumed substances for their subsequent effects on the body. We should not be punishing people with jail time if they so choose to inhale Cannabis, but instead offering rehab and education to help people to stop using the substance.
My intention here is not to create a forum for pro-cannabis and the legalization of the substance but merely to help shed light on what I believe to be true systemic issues regarding our stance on substance use in this country.
It is a natural tendency for us to search out scape goats and blame others for not regulating enough when in reality a simple and open conversation with your child, your peers, and your mentors about the use of substances will do better in the long run than telling someone to “just say no”.
We can all learn and progress positively from an event such as this.
Brett unfortunately was taken too soon but an open conversation with the ones you care about will do more to prevent such a thing like this from happening in the future than tighter restrictions. Don’t leave it up to society to raise your child.  Take the responsibility that was bestowed upon you when you decided to bring that perspective into consciousness.
Let us hold everyone involved (the victims, the victim’s families, the accused, and the accused families) in this situation in the light.  This is a difficult situation for all and the coming months will not be easy. 
Let us now take the appropriate steps to ensure that something like this is preventable in the future.