Not A Solution: Parents Send Sixth Grader To School With A Gun For ‘Protection’ After Newtown Shooting

In the most irresponsible reaction to the Newtown, Connecticut shooting we’ve seen yet, a sixth grade boy showed up to school this week with a .22 caliber pistol. School officials are saying that the young boy was told to bring the weapon to school by his parents as protection after the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary.

The good news is that the gun was not loaded and no children were hurt in the incident. However, as if to underscore the reason why this was such a horrible and ignorant decision, at least one of the boy’s classmates say that he pointed the gun at her head and said that he would kill her. I don’t know what other proof one needs to show that this 11-year-old child is not yet capable of understanding the serious dangers associated with guns and their use.

Parents, who are already terrified to send their children to school, are angry about the elementary school’s handling of the situation. Apparently, there was no lockdown of the classrooms once the weapon was found. The school did not contact parents to let them know that a gun was taken into school that day. The young boy went to the principal’s office immediately where police were brought in to help deal with the incident, but parents believe that this was not enough. They had to hear about the incident from their children, which was understandably upsetting.

As our Mommyish editor, Koa Beck, was quick to point out, “People get scared and their judgement just goes out the window.” These parents were not the first to automatically assume that more guns in school will keep kids safer. Plenty of scared parents are calling for armed guards to protect schools. In the wake of the Aurora shooting, politicians were lamenting that there weren’t more gun-owners in the audience who could have possibly stopped James Holmes.

The problem is that those additional guns, just like the one that turned up at this Utah elementary school, would be more likely to cause a tragic accident than to defend anyone. This 11-year-old boy isn’t going to keep a murderer at bay. He’s going to hurt himself or one of his classmates.

The parents of this sixth grader had to be scared for the safety of their child, but they were incredibly irresponsible. They are lucky that no one died as a result of their stupidity. These are the people who make gun ownership so dangerous. They think nothing of the innocent bystanders or terrible accidents. They add to the problem, and leave school administrators and police officers to clean up the mess they made.

(Photo: bluefish/Shutterstock)