6-Year-Old Brings Handgun To US School, Mother Faces Charges

A mother of a 6-year-old was charged by Norfolk, Virginia, police after the school found out that her child brought a handgun to school. Police received a phone call from Little Creek Elementary School on Friday that a student had a weapon, CNN reported. When officers arrived, police said a handgun was turned over by school staff, and no one was injured.

The child's mother, Letty M. Lopez, 35, was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor and allowing access to loaded firearms by children. She was later released on a criminal summons.

Norfolk Public Schools spokesperson Michelle Washington told CNN that police arrived at the school after students had been dismissed for the day and other children had been sent home. "School administration immediately enacted safety and security protocols including calling Norfolk Police," Washington said. "School administration also immediately contacted division leadership and the Communications office."

The school board is planning to invest in weapons detection systems for all schools in the division, upgrading school security cameras, hiring 18 additional security officers, and creating additional security supervisory positions, Washington told the media outlet.

Meanwhile, a six-year-old boy opened fire in an elementary school classroom in the eastern US state of Virginia in January, seriously injuring a teacher.

"The individual is a six-year-old student. He is right now in police custody," local police chief Steve Drew told a news conference, adding that "this was not an accidental shooting."

Police said that the victim was a teacher in her 30s and her injuries were believed to be life-threatening.

School shootings plague the United States, with recent tragedies including the killing last May of 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, by an 18-year-old gunman.

There were an estimated 44,000 gun-related deaths in the United States last year, about half of them murder cases, accidents and self-defence, and half of them suicides, according to the Gun Violence Archive database.