Report: Number of K-12 Campus Gun Seizures Is Soaring

More than 1,150 firearms were confiscated in K-12 schools nationwide last school year — averaging more than six guns per day — The Washington Post reported. 

An investigation by the newspaper found that the number of guns seized by schools is most likely far higher, citing surveys showing many gun seizures were never reported to the media. Those same districts said the number of guns recovered on campus rose sharply in recent years. 

The investigation revealed that 1 in 47 school-age children — approximately 1.1 million students — attended a school where at least one gun was found. 

Washington Post reporters combed through tens of thousands of news stories from Aug. 1, 2022, through June 30, 2023, on both LexisNexis and Google. They created a database of guns reported seized on K-12 school campuses and analyzed the ages of those found with guns and the school demographics and locations, using 2021-2022 federal school enrollment figures, the most recent data available.

The paper also requested data on guns found on school campuses from the 100 largest U.S. public school districts. Fifty-one districts provided data for the 2022-2023 school year, including six of the seven largest school systems in the country; 47 districts gave a full five years of data. Some districts wanted hundreds of dollars to compile the records, while others said they did not track such information.

Guns were discovered practically everywhere — bookbags, lockers, trash cans, bathrooms, cars, pockets, purses, bulging behind waistbands and hidden above bathroom ceiling tiles. Some were brought by accident, others to show off. In many cases, the guns were taken to school to end lives, police told the newspaper. 

The vast majority of campus gun seizures reported by news organizations involved high schoolers — the median age was 16, according to The Post’s survey. But authorities found guns on at least 31 students age 10 or younger during the 2022-2023 academic year, the news stories said. As is the case in most school shootings, the majority of those guns were brought to campus by children who could not legally purchase a firearm on their own. 

School districts across the country are developing and implementing security plans in hopes of preventing guns from being taken onto campuses. But no matter what the strategy is, school safety experts say catching a gun on the front end is much better than investigating following a worst-case scenario. 

Related: Empowering Education: Strategies for Safer Learning Environments

“Kids are more likely to carry firearms, and even to bring firearms into school, if they have been victims of violence themselves, if they aren’t connected to a community, if they have post-traumatic stress,” Megan Ranney, a leading firearm-injury researcher and dean of the Yale School of Public Health, told The Post. “We’ve got a lot of kids who are scared … maybe have lost parents from covid, maybe have lost community connections because of shutdowns of community groups during covid. And then add on to it increased access to firearms. A lot of guns bought over the last couple of years. It becomes a perfect storm.” 

When preventive measures fail, school security officers and resource officers often represent the final defense against would-be shooters. 

The Post found that those officers — while highly unlikely to stop a school shooting in progress — have proved important in seizing guns brought onto school campuses, preventing potential violence every day. 

To read the newspaper’s report, click here.