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WXIA / NBC via Reuters
A 14-year-old pupil and a teacher were shot Thursday, Jan. 31, at Price Middle School in Atlanta. Another student at the school was arrested.
The case of a Virginia second-grader caught with a gun on his school bus this week may be shocking but it's by no means uncommon.
Across the country, children are being suspended or arrested for having weapons on campus or buses on a daily basis.
Police in Henrico, Va., were waiting at school for the little boy Monday morning after he allegedly threatened another pupil on their ride to Ratcliffe Elementary School. They found a handgun in his backpack, NBC station WWBT of Richmond, Va. reported.
The incident made national headlines Monday, as did a similar incident when a loaded gun was found in a pupil's book bag last month at P.S. 215 in Queens, N.Y.
However, these incidents aren't as isolated as they may appear. An NBC News survey of crime dockets and news reports across all 50 states reveals that, since Jan. 1, there have been at least 48 incidents in which guns have been discovered on students, in their bags or in their lockers.
There were at least five last Thursday alone: in Atlanta; Augusta, Kan.; Chicago; Raleigh, N.C.; and Winston-Salem, N.C.
There have been 23 class days since some districts resumed school Jan. 2 — not including Jan. 21, the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. That works out to more than two gun reports a day this school year. (The survey excluded incidents in which pupils were caught with toy guns; all of the weapons were handguns, rifles, BB guns or air rifles.)
And those are just the cases that have been made public: Juveniles' police records are generally protected, so an untold number of other such incidents are likely to have occurred.
While it's impossible to determine whether such potentially deadly show-and-tells are happening more frequently, the public data do indicate just how hard it is to clamp down on guns on campus since the issue became a national concern in December in the wake of the fatal shootings of 20 pupils at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
Most of the time, the weapons are brought along for protection or as items of curiosity, with the pupil more interested in showing off than in shooting. And usually, they're intercepted before anyone can get hurt, with the student's being suspended or charged for a weapons violation, depending on his or her age. Often, a parent or guardian is charged with failing to secure the weapon.
But when they're not intercepted, tragedy is often the result.
Last week, a 14-year-old boy was shot and wounded by a student at Price Middle School in Atlanta, police said.
"Gun violence in and around our schools is simply unconscionable and must end," Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said. "Too many young people are being harmed and too many families are suffering from unimaginable and unnecessary grief."
And on Jan. 10, a student was wounded by a classmate who shot him at Taft Union High School in Taft, Calif., police said The boy targeted a second classmate but missed, authorities said.
While many lawmakers have introduced legislation that would put armed police or security guards in schools, that may not be the answer, according to a state task force reviewing campus safety in Virginia.
The task force last week stressed the need to fund anti-bullying programs and school resource officers, but it stopped short of calling for more officers in schools.
"If we were to put 1,000 new police officers in our schools, those police officers would have to come from somewhere, and we might inadvertently make things less safe in our communities," Dewey G. Cornell, a law professor at the University of Virginia who's a member of the task force, told WWBT.
The boy who opened fire last week in California was one of those who carried a weapon because he said he had been bullied, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said.
But that's not a good enough excuse, parents say.
"That just doesn't make sense," said Jeremy Massey, the parent of a student at Daly Elementary School in Inskter, Mich., near Detroit, where a third-grader was found to have taken a loaded gun to class two days in a row last month. The boy told police he carried the gun for his own protection.
"If you are 10 years old, the only protection you need is to go tell an adult," Massey told NBC station WDIV of Detroit.
Related:
Full list of student gun incidents this year
Obama on guns: 'We're not going to wait until the next Newtown'
Guns already allowed in schools with little restriction in many states
Leave a Comment:
The NRA wants more guns in America's schools. This is certainly one way!
When the officer stationed in the school runs out of ammo he can just borrow some!!
Why would he run out? Be prepared.
What is needed is some organization that promotes the safe and responsible handling of a firearm.
And more places were firearms can be safely used instead of being hidden away from children to become taboo objects.
As of now, the only place kids learn about guns is on TV and in movies.
There is no safer way to handle firearms than to melt them down.
Cayeres,
Or, teach gun safety. Maybe also car safety, knife safety, etc.
The saddest thing here is how many "intelligent responsible" citizens are too "stupid and selfish" and miss the whole "nevermind the man behind the curtain" routine. The cause of violence isn't weaponry. It never was. It has always been us. Humans are always in pursuit of dominance. It is our nature. We make tools to achieve our goals. It is our talent. We will always bend to our nature. We will always seek the easiest path. We will always lie to those willing to follow to gain power. Those who blame the tool, and not the user, are too cowardly to face their own nature. Those who shout "it's the inanimate object" from a soap box are lying to you. This article is designed to elicit an emotional response, not supply facts. If you accept it as truth, you are willingly being manipulated. Grow up, and deal with it.
JMP, wow, you read the article, and gave an emotional response. Wow, just wow!!!
JMP...those "inanimate objects" are deadly weapons designed to kill people. Your point will be valid if the bullets killing so many come out of the trigger fingers of "us" but they do not. They come out of guns. Guns are at the epicenter of the homicide, suicide and mass killing problem. There can't be a shooting without guns. No matter how much you try to ignore the role of the guns in all these shootings that is a lost cause.
So true.
Cayeres,
Anything can be misused. What you propose is as silly as banning cars, household cleaners, stairs, hammers, knives, bats,
Think before spewing.
All the Schools? Chicago? LA? Detroit? How about a breakdown with stats? What was number 5 years ago, 10 ? How many kids caught with knives or drugs?
Liberal Media reporting, Keep fueling the flames for your agenda!
Reading comprehension not your strong suit??
How many in Chicago? How many in New York? How Many were in Detroit? How Many in LA? How many caught with other weapons ie knives etc.? If the did a survey then they should know all 48 schools and location. They should know of other weapons as well. Well then Willie?
Did I miss the Breakdown of the 48 due to my reading comprehension?
If so then Wille you point it out in the article.
The Department of Education study concluded that areas with more households with guns have more students bringing guns to our schools. They also said the problem is as bad in the suburbs and countryside than in cities. Look for areas with more homes with guns there you find more schools with students with guns.
Cayeres
Looked all over could not find anything form Department of Education that specifically states what you stated.
I'm sure it's good enough for the NRA.
Indumbpendant Tinkeler, so, you would condone violence, eh???
I believe the question was for stats from 5 years and 10 years ago not just from January.
I guess reading comprehension is not you strong suit.
My kid can beat up yer kid...
Spencer,
Violence for bullies? Of course. A good beating may help one get over his bullying tendencies.
Violence can solve many problems.
I am 58 yO and kids have been carrying guns and knives to school sine I was there and before. The differance is that guns are not the problem. When we had guns on us . We didn't flaunt them or threaten with them. We understood the effects of thier use and respected that with a sense of pride to the point we would fight with our hands and give and take an asswhoopin. Rather then shoot or threaten to. Because when we shot it was to kill. We had gangs and they exsisted before I was young growing up in NewYork. If we had a beef with another we went after them and them alone. No senseless drivebys. The problem today isant the guns and takeing them away wont stop someone from getting one if they want one or using it. Common sense should tell us this. The issues that needs to be addressed is not the guns but proper upbringing of the children and teaching them to be responable have a sense of morals instilled in them that will cause them to think before reacting; and weighing the outcomes. With parents these days allowing thier children from young ages to throw tantrums to get something they want. Not putting an end to the children telling the parents what they will and wont do and cursing at them when it starts. Liberals haver fought to take your rights away from using corperal punishments to teach and train your children. And that it self will breed dissent and rebellion most times. We need to speak to our children and listen to them. And never give in to them when you know you shouldn't. To many have been raising thier children and trying to be thier friend. STOPIT. Be a parent and they will respect you more for it. And if any frindship is to develop it will happen without you trying. Washington in the mean time as well as the schools, parents law inforcement need to have thier hands untied. Illegal invaders and even leagals that have taken our kids street gangs; that used to protect thier younger brothers and sister from the crap. And turned them into murders,drug dealers, robbers and rapist. With no feelings,morals or conscience, respect or love for family , community, country or themselves. They have at such a young age been brain washed and turned into a standing army for the drug cartels. And this needs to be addressed and we need to take them to war. They have declared the war and its about time America stands its ground on this or falls to it in the end.We know this is happening and if a dimwit such as myself can see it you best be sure theres a very evil reason Washington isn't acting on it the right way and trying to blind us with talk of more guncontrol. I'm not saying there shouild be no guns in the hands of citizens. Our forefathers said we should have them for a reason. I belive if Washington doesn't respond to to this invasion and acts of war on our peoples it will only become in many places like the cities of mexico and other parts of the world. Where the freedom is gone and control of the masses is thru fear, So that we have become thier puppets, subjects and fodder. Parents please pay attention to your childr3en no matter how tired or stressed you are and don't let that computer and the gangs raise your children. Mony is in fact the root of all evil . And they are being paid at such a young age these days to become solders for the drug cartels. Washington. I emplore you to act with out fear of hurting someones feelings or loosing a voting block. History will speak well of you if you stand up for us and the future of your childrens children.
WCE just proved that gun owners are a big part of the problem of their kids bringing guns to schools. There is no valid reason for a student to bring guns to schools. Gun owing parents teach their kids to solve problems with guns because that's how they themselves solve problems. The root of the guns in school problem is gun owners!~
I own Guns and I teach my kids how to solve problems without violence. I set examples and talk to them about things in a way they can understand. I let them read letters and things I have sent to congress. We also talk about things at the dinner table daily. My children also are allowed to shoot. We make it a family event. If my children have a problem at school I will know about it before they think violence is the only answer. It is called being a parent. So before you blame gun owners you need to think about the decay in family life. Try to fix the human condition and not blame a tool.
The guns of over 80 million of us shot no one yesterday...or decades before yesterday. Nor did we give them to our kids.
How many died in car accidents yesterday?
Guns are not the problem! In fact guns really have been the constant throughout American history! What has changed is our society; and not for the better!! When my father-in-law was growing up in depression era South Dakota, it was common to hunt early before school. When it was time for school many students would show up with thier rifles and put them in the coat room! There was never a shooting at school. Our society has become one that condones violence. Morals and ethics have somehow been left by the wayside. This is not just in urban depressed areas. Kids coming out of business grad school actually think it is a piece of "business brilliance" to pull off the crimes by wall street in recent years as long as you don't get caught!! If we don't turn this around, this country is going right down the tubes!!
lol @ Cayeres . My kids never took a gun to school and that is not what any of what I said says. A big part of the problem is people like you that read what you want into something so you sound like you have a cause and a clue. Gun owning paernts do not in fact teach thier children to solve problems with violence. Where in the name of anything of common sense do you get you ideas from? Or is that just your uneducated opionion gatherd from the anti American media. Wow what a dipstick.
Yea we did too Moto87. We carryed our rifles and unloaded them and put me in a closet. Why did we even carry them to school? Bobcats,Bears and insanly large timber rattlers.
MSNBC, YOU are just as responsible for the gun deaths as the crazy nutjobs that slip through the cracks of the mental health system. YOU create these monsters. YOU glorify them by constantly putting up their pictures and calling them calculating and "clever" and intelligent. YOU can't even wait to get the FACTS straight before you publish a story on a mass shooting. The misinformation you have created has been blatantly irresponsible and reckless.
F**k YOU MSNBC.
Iknowthisisfunandallbutreally..., will you please STFU!! The NRA is responsible. They are the ones pushing that that the only thing that beats a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. These kids see themselves as good guys.
Iknowthisisfunandallbutreally is a typical example of how irrational gun owners are!~
Blame the NRA and not Bush?
Ill do it for you.
It's Bush's Fault!
How's That?
TruthNo,
Nonsense. The NRA promotes self defense. It is also the only organization nationwide that teaches gun safety.
I renewed my membership last month after a long period of not having it. I will never let it lapse again.
Amen!
The kids are following the NRA mindset. Everybody armed!!
NRA said arm kids? Why must you lie to try to make your point?
Tell you what you need to do Truth. Lets get rid of all the guns in America......outlaw ALL firearms and bullets.....GUN-FREE ZONES everywhere. Then you can practice your kneeling to be executed drills like a good little liberal with no sense. You told me to STFU. Fella, they screw with the second amendment, the first won't be long to follow. You actually THINK? (oh, you're a liberal, sorry, thinking doesn't happen in your head...its all in knee-jerks) that the POLICE are going to stop an armed assassin with OMG....an ASSAULT WEAPON, 100 round drum of .223 and a hellfire trigger or bump-fire stock....lets remember, he stole those items, is mentally ill and slipped through your lame dragnet filter and he has nothing but body count on his mind and you'll do nicely....perhaps your wife and children....sure, be helpless and watch as he kills them as the police are still 10 minutes out....but hey, he'll finish you off and you'll die helpless and ignorant and defenseless because you didn't think. He is a criminal and sick and they let him go unchecked. Maybe you can ask your neighbors to hug him to sanity after he leaves your precious gun-free zone of helplessness. You did nothing but help him and your death will NOT be remembered.......HE WILL because they will post his photo time and time again, glorifying him at the expense of your and your kid's and wife's death because you couldn't do anything but kneel and watch. Your neighbor with the assault weapon could have helped....he's a veteran, but you took his gun away. Silly fella you are.
When are the Democrats and Republicans going to take responsibility for THEIR actions and Non-actions? This is a VERY sick government. Stupidity and Ignorance in the very highest office. Muslem & Queer loving dufe. No matter how much you think you LOVE everyone you can NOT out love God. So get off your box, you are costing everyone damage.
You did not fail to show just how idiotic, and stupid you are! Muslim & Queer loving dufe? You must be Rush Slimeballs?
Thanks for everything Wayne. The kids are certainly getting your message.
Guns are such wonderful toys...
It people that consider a gun a "toy" is part of the problem.
Bob,
La Pierre said to arm kids? Show me.
Deleted
A Department of Education study concluded that close to 100,000 guns are taken from homes to school every school day. The main reasons students have to bring guns to schools is "show and tell" or for protection. The main reason why they are able to take so many guns from homes to schoos is the poor gun safety skills of their gun owning parents. In most cases parents never find out their guns were taken to schools by their children because the kids take the guns in the morning when their parents are busy getting ready to go to work and return them before their parents get home. In most cases these guns are undetected by school officials since school metal detectors are easy to defeat by using windows, doors, etc. without metal detectors. As long as we have so many privately owned guns in the US we will have students bringing guns in schools. The possible solutions is to reduce the number of guns in the US, require training in gun safety before buying guns, enforce gun storage laws, and prosecute all gun owners who leave their guns unlocked or poorly locked to the fullest extend of the law.
Cayerss,
100,000 a day? Then surely we would have seen those numbers in the news. Where are they? Seems Obama's Dept of Ed is not so educated, eh?
Your last sentence is very good. You must have done a copy and paste because you have never shown the sense to make that statement.
This is not a new problem. Students have been taking weapons to school since I was a student. The media is making the "gun" a new problem, I don't think so. I carried my Swiss army knife to school every day. I would get expelled for that now. I can almost guarantee there are allot of students taking knives to school every day and the media only reports about the "guns". Think for yourself and stop believing what the media rams down your throat.
The city near me has had police posted in schools long before Sandy Hook. I can not find any cases of a shooting in there school district. The problem is not the "gun" it is a decay in society.
There were armed guards at Columbine. They weren't unable to stop the massacre. President Kennedy was killed while being protected by heavily trained and heavily armed Secret Service agents and Dallas Police Officers. His killer was shot and killed inside a police precient while surrounded by armed cops. Guns for self defense is more a fallacy than a reality. Guns are designed to kill people not to save lives.
School my daughter goes to has had an Armed On Duty Police officer there for years.
Funny thing happened, things Like Bullying, Assaults, Vandalism, Drugs/alcohol has dropped by over %60 plus. Instead of A phone call to a parent that probably doesn't give a crap (why their kid acts the way they do) the offenders are sent to a Police Officer and if warranted criminal Charges and or expulsion.
More to it making a school safer.
Cayeres,
Right, no guns for the President!!!!!
Americans, from grade school to grandparents, are afraid of their own shadow. You just can not be concerned for the mental health of the entire country when the population has no personal peace. It seems like the government likes it that way too! Strange country right now and in a terrible mess!
Kids bringing guns to school, unacceptable!!! Its time to crack down on the bullies! Anyone caught bullying another, should be mandatory home schooling! The parents of these bullies should have to do the schooling themselves. If they are deemed to dumb to teach their child, let them pay for someone to come to their home, and do it for them! This is a serious problem, and it needs our attention right now!!!
Come on, people, if you have a child in your home, and you have a gun, (any kind) LOCK IT UP!!!
But this report and other reports on this subject say the main reason why students bring guns to schools is not because of bullies but to show and tell. They have access to those guns because their parents do not lock them property. We do need to address the bullying problem but guns in schools is more the fault of irresponsible gun owners.
I agree with locking up my guns. Bullies will never be stopped. I was bullied along with many other people. I grew up to be a productive member of society. Getting bullied made me a stronger person. There are only to types of kids, the ones who get bullied or the one doing it. It is part of the human condition and can not be fixed.
Cayeres is talking about the FEW, not the MANY.
This has got to be the most embarrassing country to live in. Gun culture nation that is the only culture this country has. @Ed-2240122 so idiot lets go a right ahead and make a gun zone and allow all to carry guns; I can see mass chaos of shootings occurring at the slightest of provocation. I am getting tired by your old NRA moronic argument that has no merit or measure other than appeasing for a need to own guns of all kinds for the sole purpose of a much antiquated amendment that has no bearing on are society today. However, America has created this gun culture of violence and the argument for gun rights hinges on that
FragU,
It must be miserable for you living in such fear.
Why do you hate the Constitution and Bill of Rights?
Calm your hysteria.
most will call this an Inconvenient Truth (if they admit to it), but couple observations about this and most of the violence in our society today.
1, when there was God in our schools the only guns in our schools were used for rifle team or kids brought them for the start of hunting season ( many decades ago)
2, if you look at the years prior to 1960 it seems our country was overall better off and less violent. Matter of fact there was like a 200% increase in various crimes between 1960-1970 and many abortion supporters use the argument for abortion that part of the reason for the drop in crime around the 1990s is that is when the aborted kids would have had a chance to become criminals ( i dont believe in abortion but those opinions are all over the place)
3 most will say "They the 60's is when the civil rights movement started". They are right and the civil rights movement was right and the right thing to do, but it is hard to miss that when the country was over 80% white demographically there was less crime. That is not racist if its a fact. I have no idea why that changed, but it cant be ignored that we started going to hell well the false God of sociali engineering, political correctness, and multi-culturalism came about.
Its not a mental issue and you morons need not make it a mental issue; those who are clinically mentally unstable who use guns as their means to assault make up a very small percentage compared to those with nefarious intentions.
FragU,
The recent school shootings indicate that ....you are wrong....again.
All I can say, regardless of what everyone else thinks, when you kick God out of the school room and home you let something else in.
This country has a laissez-faire attitude about guns. Any mouth-breathing moron can and does buy guns. We have more restrictions on cough medicine than we do on guns. Combine that with government hating, Obama hating, survivalist, Neo-Nazi, race hating, religious cults and whatever crackpot notion some people have and you have a very volatile situation. Wherever you may go, theater, school, driving your car, restaurant, shopping mall, the nuts with guns are everywhere. One or the other has to go, either the nuts or the guns. The two can not co-exist. I say this as one who has owned, used and carried guns for some fifty years.
There are a lot of nuts out there without guns too. Not having a gun to perpetrate their criminal intentions will not deter them from doing so.
For instance, my Titleist 5-iron would kill someone if I were of a mind to use it for that.
You can't kill someone with a 5-iron from fifty feet away.
tim,
Um....ok....so?
Last time I bought some Vicks Formula 44D, I didn't have to do a background check. Must have been that "cough syrup show" loophole.
My guess is if someone put a gun in your hand, the first thing you'd do would be look down the barrel to see if it were loaded.
So, not having a firearm to perpetrate a crime clearly raises the risk to the perpetrator significantly, thereby creating a significant deterrence, contrary to this comment above:
Duh.
Didn't take long at all for the arse holes to blame the Pres on this. These stories do bring the idiots out of the woodwork.
That said, parents who let their kids get a hold of the firearms should be charged. Ban idiots and cowardly thugs, not firearms.
I do not blame the president for this at all. He has no idea what to do. Neither does Crazy Joe Biden. I do not expect anything useful from either one of them...on any subject
Agree on the idiots and thugs. That would include a lot of politicians.
If a child has a weapon, the parent is at fault. Fine or jail the parents. Obviously they are not supervising their children good enough. Plus they are endangering school grounds.
PS. The sky is falling....
It truly is a culture problem. When I was in middle school 30 years ago, I remember 2 distinct instances of a kid bringing a handgun to school - and I went to a little country school in the boondocks. Thing was: None of us even dreamed either kid would use it. Each of them just brought the gun to show it off - and both of them got in deep, deep doo-doo. I know both of these guys as adults now - responsible, respectable adults with families. Normal guys - just doing stupid things when they were young.
But these kids that think they need a gun to protect themselves - that's messed up. No kid needs a gun to protect him/herself. Either fight your way out or take your a$$-beating. Suck it up. Quit being so paranoid. And to the parents, quit making them so paranoid.
It truly is a culture problem - forget the arguments about the laws and gun control - whatever. Figure it out - let the people/voters decide on those. But the culture - gun nuts need to become like cigarette smokers.....I was a closet smoker for a reason - 'cause it was so frowned upon....gun nuts need to be looked at the same way: As a cancer on civilized society. If you're carrying a gun all the time and telling your kid that you have to carry a gun all the time for your personal protection - and the kids taking a bullying at school (like we all did growing up) - then what other expectation would you have than the kid's going to bring a gun to school for his/her own protection?
If only they would have been given a background check. So much for that argument. I also see the article fails to mention that the school shooter was stopped by armed security at the school. God forbid the public should ever realize that it works! They'll have you believe that the only solution is gun control. Shame on them and even more so to the people that believe it.
Well said.
Yes he was armed. No he did not pull his gun. Yes he tackled the shooter. No gun needed.
If you want to stop gun violence, BOYCOTT THE MEDIA!