Teen Brings Ghost Gun Into School
A 13-year-old boy brought an untraceable ghost gun into his middle school, sending the school into lockdown.
Since the horrific massacre at Robb elementary school in Uvalde, Texas last month, an onslaught of copycat threats have been documented at an alarming rate across the United States. Many of these threats were just that, but in some instances, students were found bringing guns into schools. Just earlier this week, a teenager brought a ghost gun into a Maryland school, and the report is furthering gun control advocates’ claims that more gun restrictions are necessary for school safety.
The New York Post reported that on Tuesday, June 21st, a 13-year-old student brought a loaded gun into his middle school, Isaac J. Gourdine, in Fort Wahington, Maryland. With his identity being withheld, and little known about his motives, he was taken into custody from the school. Another student had reported seeing the weapon, an unregistered ghost gun.
Ghost guns are firearms that are untraceable, as they don’t contain serial numbers for tracking. Allegedly, it is easy to obtain them, even without a background check, and even via online purchases. Over the last decade, data shows that these guns have been found to be used in the United States at a tenfold increasing rate. NPR reports that last year, there were suspected to be about 20,000 of these untraceable firearms being reported in criminal investigations.
Because of the uptick in findings of these ghost guns across the nation, the federal government and members of congress have been in negotiation in an attempt to get them off the streets. In the wake of the Uvalde school shooting, the House of Representatives passed a massive gun reform package known as the Protecting Our Kids Act. Still in lieu, the package contained a portion that would help restrict the recirculation of ghost guns.
According to Prince George’s County police reports, the student who brought the untraceable ghost gun into school showed the gun to multiple students before the school went into lockdown. When authorities entered the school to apprehend him, cops reported that he was found in a classroom with the weapon tucked into his waistband. Luckily, no one was harmed and the weapon reportedly was never fired.
WUSA9 reports that this wasn’t the first time a student brought a firearm into a public school building in Maryland this year. Even more, it wasn’t the first time a ghost gun was recovered from a student. In January, a high school student brought one of these unlicensed firearms to Magruder High School in Maryland, where he shot another student. Unfortunately, this day also marked the last of the school year for Isaac J. Gourdine middle school students at the middle school. Now, their year will likely be memorized by this startling incident.
School and city officials are applauding the student who came forward and spoke up to alert school staff about the boy with the ghost gun. Additionally, the school sent out information in an attempt to compel parents to practice gun safety measures in the home. The 2021-2022 school year was a historic one for reports of guns being found in school, and many fear that next fall, the matter will only get worse.
