In the state of Virginia, a 6-year-old student had already shot his mistress in January, seriously injuring her in the chest.
In the United States, a woman residing in Pennsylvania and a man in North Carolina were charged this week after two children, aged 6 in both cases, brought a weapon to school, reports CNN.
Gun and bullets in the school bus
In Pennsylvania, 30-year-old Jasmin Delvin turned herself in to law enforcement, and was charged with “felony endangering the welfare of a child and reckless endangerment for failing to secure a firearm in her home,” the prosecutor’s office said.
It was his son’s school friends who alerted the administrative staff of the establishment, after he showed them a gun and bullets on the bus. The prosecutor said the child and his older brother had found the gun in their mother’s closet the night before.
The 6-year-old child then returned in the middle of the night to the closet to steal the weapon, before hiding it in his backpack.
The weapon hidden in the backpack
In North Carolina, Marvin Ray Davis was also charged with “misdemeanor improper storage of a firearm to protect a minor”, reports CNN. Again, it was the school staff who discovered the weapon in his backpack. He is not the father of the child, but lives in the same residence.
“This situation should remind all gun owners to secure their guns in a safe way so that minors cannot get them,” the local police chief said.
20,138 deaths in 2022
In a country sick with its gun violence, which caused around 20,138 deaths in 2022 according to the specialized site The Tracethe use of firearms by children is not uncommon.
This is the third time since January 2023 that a student from an American elementary school has brought a weapon back to his establishment. In January, a child, again 6 years old, shot his teacher at his school in Newsport News, Virginia.
Still according to CNN, he shot his mistress after an argument. The latter was seriously injured in the chest, and a metal detector was placed at the entrance of the establishment. “The suspect is a 6-year-old student,” local police said at the time.
