NEW SHOOTING IN MARYLAND: A 13-year-old boy has been shot outside a middle school in Bowie, Maryland and is in critical condition.

UPDATE: Another reader writes that there are unconfirmed reports of another shooting outside a Bowie Wal-Mart. (Later: That turns out to be false — see below). And Richard Aubrey writes:

If you were a parent of a Bowie, MD, middle school student, would you feel better knowing that half a dozen of the teachers and staff were armed and trained?

Would you feel worse?

Better. Several readers also suggest that this makes terrorism seem more likely as the motivation. I think so, too, though I can’t say exactly why. This just doesn’t seem to fit the pattern for your typical serial killer.

ANOTHER UPDATE: The Sky Blog has a post on this.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Justin Katz has some more thoughts. And several readers speculate that the bogus call regarding a shooting at Wal-Mart was a diversion.