13-Year-Old Middle School Student Brings Loaded Ghost Gun To Classroom, Arrested

Police said that a 13-year-old middle school student was taken to custody for bringing a ghost gun to a school in Fort Washington, Maryland Tuesday morning.

The teen studies at Isaac J. Gourdine Middle School, which was briefly placed on lockdown as a precaution, the Prince George's County Police Department said, according to WUSA9. The 13-year-old apparently showed the non-serialized ghost gun to other students Tuesday morning, said police. One of the students who saw the weapon later reported it.

Around 8.15 a.m., police arrived at the school. They found the gun in the student's waistband. Nobody was injured even though there was a gun in the school.

Earlier also a ghost gun had been seized on Maryland school property. It is an issue that Prince George’s County At-Large Councilmember Mel Franklin plans to address. Franklin said that their oversight committee is going to have to look at it, and he thinks that their police chief is "going to need to address it, obviously, our school system is trying to address it." He added that all of those things need to come together to "really come up with what our game plan is going to be."

As for the arrested teen, the student is charged with multiple counts. It includes dangerous weapon on school property and loaded handgun on person.

Franklin said that it’s very troubling because of how undetectable the "ghost guns are and how easy it appears to be that they can be made." According to him, the student who let authorities know about the "ghost gun situation, he’s a hero." He said that the student who reported it probably "prevented a school shooting and could have saved many lives." He added that’s why "we really have to encourage our young people if they see something, they need to say something as lives could depend on it.”

A letter from the school was sent to parents and guardians urging them to talk about school safety tips with the children. Police said that the investigation for this incident is active.

New York Post reported that New York Police City Department officials have said they are worried about the proliferation of such weapons. Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller said last month that the number of recovered ghost guns in New York City has gone up from 17 in 2018 to 131 between January and April of this year.