A child was caught bringing a gun to my son's school yesterday. What do you think should be done about it?

what was she going to do – make the kids race?

My initial thought was jailtime but for a 7th grader I think that is too harsh. IF she was 16 or older I would feel different. I do think however that she should be expelled from school until such a time that a school appointed counselor can determine that she is no longer a threat to others

@eponymoushipster she should be given a stern talking-to, beginning with, “You wanna start something?”

We could treat this the way we always suggested bars in “the bad part of town” should: they check you at the door for weapons. If you don’t have one, they give you one before they let you in the door.

congratulate her on exercising her right to bear arms and so precociously too, obviously destined for great things.

Wow, parents really suck these days, don’t they?

In 7th grade I had no problem understanding that bringing something that looked like a gun to school is a BAD idea.

The kid probably shouldn’t be expelled, but suspension & (family?) counseling seems to be in order.

Smart little girl.

@softtop67 has it

Suspend the child.
Schools need 0 tolerance for guns on campus.

If it was a starter pistol that sounds like not a big deal on the surface but that sort of thing evolves into real gun situations quickly.

@Captain_Fantasy The problem with expulsion (and other 0 tolerance policies) is that there’s then little opportunity to turn it into a learning experience. I would expect this could be a one time incident, but only with proper guidance.

Particularly if you realize that expulsion younger than 16 or so with the equivalent of shooting the kid in the head socioeconomically.

Changed to “suspend” upon learning it wasn’t a real gun.
Still you can’t bring guns to school. That is simple enough. There shouldn’t be any class assemblies about “let’s reflect on the nature of Janie’s starter pistol”.

I agree the girl should be suspended. It was as starter pistol, not a real gun. “Zero tolerance” leads to “zero thinking”. Zero Tolerance leads to first graders being expelled for plastic knives and water pistols.

suspend her and counseling for her parents and both kids. If there are 2 bullies growin up in the same family, they are not being raised in love.

TOYS R US does not sell water guns now. they say it’s not PC. Yet they sell things when you go to register they take away as choking hazards. You can not buy, yet they are on the shelf where kids can choke. That’s a smokin gun.

Some of this has gone too far, but she was takin it to threaten others. It has to be dealt with swiftly.

it was probably a water gun and she just spray painted it. clever but not clever enough because she got caught

I see much overreaction in many of the posts here. By your description it was not a weapo to begin with and was not even operable for its purpose. The girl apparently broker the school rules but there should be graduated punishment to fit the offense. If in fact the item was brought to threaten someone that would be an aggravating factor but I still don’t see it as justifying expulsion. Rather than suspension it would seem that maybe she ought to be given a task to do, like cleanig floors after school, as was often done with disobedient children in the past. Maybe that’s not legal anymore but it should be.

Well, seeing as I did something similar in 7th grade….I got suspended for 2 months & arrested (I didn’t even have a weapon; I just threatened them), & I didn’t learn a damn thing!
@grumpyfish Counseling hasn’t worked for anyone I know…...

The kid should be expelled.

The funny thing is that I once tried to bring a gun to school. Kids were abusing me in terrible ways on the walk home everyday, and I tried to get into my dad’s gun locker, but I couldn’t.

I think child protective services should be bought into this. Doesn’t sound like her and her brother are getting proper suppervision and bullies are either physically abused themselves or neglected. She is old enough to know what the consequences would be. Sounds like a cry for help.

Cultures are slow to perceive the need for change. Too many folks seem to believe in the mantra “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.”

Do you not agree with that mantra Matt?

@mattbrowne – No. My mantra would be: “Angry people with fists don’t kill people. Angry people with guns kill people.” But I understand if people see this differently. There are pros and cons for both versions. Like with the death penalty.

I don’t really know how I feel about it. Those who say “guns don’t kill, people do” are not taking into account the child who finds his fathers gun and dies because of it. Where is the killer in that scenario? But I have no problem admitting that people intentionally killed one another way before the invention of firearms.

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies – Yes, that’s another scenario: “Children with toy guns don’t kill people. Children with access to guns kill people accidentally.”