Gun Incidents, Seizures Increase At Schools Across The Nation

A rise in gun-related incidents at school campuses across the U.S. is rattling parents, students and educators, leading some school districts to beef up security measures. In Rock Hill, S.C., authorities recovered guns at three schools on three consecutive days, including at a middle school where police say a 14-year-old boy pulled a handgun on another student. The 14-year-old was involved in a fist fight in a school bathroom when a gun fell out of his pants. The youth picked up the gun and pointed it at a student, sending his classmates fleeing. The back-to-back-to-back gun episodes were a new and startling phenomenon for the district of 16,700 students near the North Carolina state line, the Wall Street Journal reports. Far more guns have turned up in U.S. schools during the first two months of this school year compared with recent years, says the Gun Violence Archive, which tracks news accounts and police reports. The archive documented more than 220 gun seizures in August and September across 35 states, up from 128 in the same period last year and 132 in 2019. Many schools were remote in fall 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic. Reports of gun violence—also are up this year. Through Tuesday, the K-12 School Shooting Database listed 224 incidents, compared with 182 at the same point in 2021. Nearly half of this year’s incidents, 103, had at least one victim. As real incidents have gone up, so have fake ones. Schools are contending with a rash of swatting, or hoax 911 calls about bogus active shooters, said the National Association of School Resource Officers. Since Sept. 9, the group has tracked reports of swatting incidents in at least 17 states and the District of Columbia.