One week, eight gun incidents in schools
Prosecutor Teresa Drenick had just put the finishing touches on her news release. It was the latest missive in the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office public awareness campaign reminding gun owners that it is state law to keep your firearms secured and inaccessible in the home.
Before Drenick could launch her release into the public domain, a madman with a ton of guns mowed down dozens of concert-goers in Las Vegas.
Weird timing?
The Las Vegas massacre was the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. So, yes. An unthinkable turn of events.
Then again, according to gun violence archive. org, through Nov. 1 more than 39,000 people had been wounded or killed
by gunfire in the United States this year. That’s 129 victims per day. So, no. Just another week that was.
Bottom line for Drenick: “My news release sat in my outbox for a while.” She finally distributed it, then happened to leave town for a few days.
She missed a rather remarkable week that featured eight incidents related to firearms in and around K-12 schools in the greater Bay Area. Eight.
In and around K-12 schools.
In one week.
Bring Your Gun to School Week got off to a rootin’, tootin’ start Monday, Oct. 23, when an eighth-grade student showed up at Menlo Oaks Middle School with an unloaded handgun.
The student was detained when he left school without permission. The gun was discovered in a backpack and the student was taken to juvenile hall.
Also that Monday, a student at Village High School in Pleasanton was arrested after bringing a loaded handgun to school.
On Tuesday, an 8-yearold strolled onto Twin Creeks Elementary School in San Ramon with a loaded 9 mm handgun in
his backpack. Two days later, the student’s father was arrested and charged with possession of stolen property and criminal storage of a firearm accessible to a child.
On Wednesday, Branciforte Middle School in Santa Cruz was locked down after a staff member discovered an unloaded, disassembled rifle in a bag on campus. Students were sent home early.
Milpitas High School experienced two lockdowns Thursday. The first came at 12:30 p.m. after a 14-year-old student was seen with a semi-automatic pistol. The boy was taken into custody, and the gun was confiscated. A couple hours later, a second
lockdown was called after a report of a student in possession of a weapon. Police located the student off campus but found no weapon.
That same day, a 12-year-old student at Chaboya Middle School in San Jose was taken into custody after reportedly brandishing a handgun at another student before school. The gun belonged to the student’s father, who kept it unloaded and locked at home.
The week (mercifully) ended with a false alarm, as authorities were unable to substantiate a report of a man with a gun behind Woodside Elementary in San Mateo. The school was locked down out of an
abundance of caution.
“It feels unusual,” said Drenick of the “coincidental cluster” of incidents. “But I don’t have stats to back up that feeling.”
It pretty much defies quantification. Eight incidents, seven campuses, five counties, various makes and models of firearms.
Find the common denominator, win a prize.
The fact that at least two of the students involved brought a firearm from home tells Drenick the Alameda DA’s office still has work to do.
“As I wrote in the news release, ‘We all know children are naturally curious,’ ” Drenick said. “They love to search through a
house for hiding places, nooks and crannies. It’s our responsibility as adults to insure that a child can’t get his or her hands on a gun. You have to have firearms secured and inaccessible. It’s the law.”
She also wrote this: “While the messaging of this public service campaign is devoted to the safe storage of firearms, it is clearly a part of a much broader campaign centered on reducing gun violence and its tragic consequences.”
Every day of the week.