UPDATE (4:58 p.m.)—The handgun that a 12-year-old Randallstown middle school student found and traded Thursday for an Xbox 360, had been secured by its owner.
"The fact that the gun ... did in fact have a gun lock underscores the importance here of keeping that weapon secure," Baltimore County police Chief Jim Johnson said during a press conference Friday.
However, the gun should have been stored securely as well, so that the boy couldn't have stolen it in the first place, county officials said Thursday.
At about 9:45 a.m. Thursday, a school resource officer at Deer Park Magnet Middle School in Randallstown found ammunition in a pants pocket of jeans left on a bench in the boys locker room.
The school resource officer learned about the ammunition from another student, Johnson said.
Police later found the Bersa .380 caliber handgun itself at another home near the school. Two boys, both 12, were charged with handgun charges.
"As we have reported, we have a young man who acquired a weapon from his caretaker, his home, and he brought that weapon to a location about a quarter mile away from the school," Johnson said.
The boy showed the weapon to another boy, took it and hid it at the other boy's home, where he had traded it for an Xbox 360, Johnson said.
The student then went to the school at 9830 Winands Road with ammunition in his pocket.
While police found the ammunition at about 9:45 a.m. Thursday at the school, Baltimore County Public Schools notified parents through recorded calls on the school system's emergency notification system, Connect Ed, police said.
A news release was sent to news media at about 10:23 a.m. Friday morning.
Late Thursday, the matter was still under investigation, Johnson said. "At 10, 10:30 last night, I still wasn’t satisfied that I knew all the facts."
Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz praised the gun owner for having the handgun locked, but said the entire incident could have been avoided if the owner had it stored in a secure place.
"When you have children, they're going to access these weapons. It doesn't matter where you hide them. They're going to know about it." he said, also during the press conference.
There are no charges filed against the gun owner because it "was secured as required by law," the news release states.
Police say they believe the students had no plans to harm anyone at the school.
"I want to make it very clear there was no intent to bring that gun to school to harm anyone," Johnson said. "This was in fact ... a trade of some electronic amusement device that was arranged."
Owings Mills-Reisterstown Patch Editor Marc Shapiro contributed to this report.
What on earth could be the reason for this..?
When we are trillions in debt and the government starts to cut back to realistic spending figure's you'll either get riots as the hand out programs will be cut...or you'll see a lack of security due to the cut back from police/military budgets. If none of this happens...us firearm owners will have nice heirlooms to pass along. If security or lack there of becomes an issue and we revert back communities protecting communities there will hopefully be someone in yours who did not take the guns are evil because they are uneducated stance on firearms. There are litterally millions of guns in America. The amount that are used in crimes is truly remote. The amount that are used by responsible citizens in crimes is even lower. Millions of kids grow up with guns in the house and they all arent stolen or taken to school....because responsible gun owners raise their kids to understand and respect guns. Not shelter them so when they do finally comes across one they either dont know what to do or play with it since there is a mystique around it. I realize it's hard for some sheeple who have grown up in a hippy do what feels good soceity to understand this. That's fine. If the day comes where you need a firearm and decided not to have one that's on you. But dont limit the right for me to protect myself, my family, and potentially my community because you are narrow minded.
Guns are in households with children by the millions. Millions of those "children" are trained in their safe and correct use. Those households rarely have issues or accidents. Drywall buckets are in millions of homes and children drown in them. Mothers are in millions of homes and mothers kill their own children every year in what is called filicide. Bicycles kill many children yearly and they are never locked up out of reach. Fact do not matter to those will to deny others their rights.
If the new progressive sex ed training in grade school is to prevent disease and teen pregnancy, and the people pushing such training say it works, then so will early firearm training for any children who partake in the classes.
What on earth could be the reason for this..?" The Moonies.
Going to do the run, hide, hope? I guess the stats about more guns and more gun permits in the hands of legal owners have reduced crime statitics mean nothing to you? It's not the gun....it's the end user.
Damn! Where can I find one of those jobs?
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