These are among more than 60 incidents involving mishandled guns at K-12 schools in the past five years, according to a compilation by the Giffords Law Center first provided to POLITICO. | Jason ConnollyAFP/Getty Images Education Gun control advocates detail mishandling of guns in schools

Three students were injured in Seaside, Calif., when a teacher accidentally fired his gun in a classroom during a safety demonstration. In another instance, authorities arrested a first-grade substitute teacher in Blountsville, Ala., after his gun accidentally discharged, striking a student with a fragment.

These are among more than 60 incidents involving mishandled guns at K-12 schools in the past five years, according to a compilation by the Giffords Law Center first provided to POLITICO. The law center is the legal arm of the gun control group founded by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, (D-Ariz.), who was seriously injured in a shooting at a 2011 constituent meeting in Tucson.


The law center, which is opposed to arming teachers, analyzed incidents of guns in schools out of concern over the debate whether teachers should carry guns to prevent school violence. President Donald Trump advocated training and arming teachers after the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Fla., that left 17 dead.

“What this shows is, yes, there’s always the concern of somebody intentionally misusing a gun, but the point I think that these incidents make is that children will be at greater risk in our schools if there are more guns in the schools,” said Adam Skaggs, the law center’s chief counsel. The incidents resulted in arrests in some cases. In others, the guns were being carried legally by authorities.

Skaggs pointed to one example last year of a third-grader pulling the trigger of a school liaison officer’s holstered gun, causing a bullet to discharge and hit the floor, while the officer was sitting on a bench.

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“If these risks of mishandled, accidentally discharged guns exist when we’re dealing with professional and well-trained law enforcement, the risks will increase by many multiples when guns are in the hands of teachers and other poorly trained school personnel,” Skaggs said.

Democrats have argued that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos opened the door for states to use federal funding for arming teachers by not taking a clear position against it. Last August, DeVos said she would not stand in the way of states that want to use federal grants to purchase guns for schools, stressing that it’s a decision for local officials to make.

Giffords Law Center gathered its information from the Gun Violence Archive and the K-12 School Shooting Database and independently verified each incident through media reports. The K-12 School Shooting Database Project is conducted as part of the Advanced Thinking in Homeland Security program at the Naval Postgraduate School’s Center for Homeland Defense and Security.

Gun Violence Archive is a not-for-profit corporation formed in 2013 that says it provides free online public access to information about gun-related violence in the United States.

No shots were fired in most of the incidents, which include several instances of students discovering in their school bathrooms unattended guns that belonged to officers and school personnel. One substitute teacher’s loaded gun fell from his waistband while helping children do cartwheels.

More serious incidents involved guns, which belonged mostly to teachers or authorities, discharging unintentionally and injuring others. In the Seaside, Calif., case last year, the teacher also served as a resource police officer and had just told the class he wanted to make sure his gun wasn’t loaded when it fired, KSBW reported. The Alabama substitute teacher was charged last month with reckless endangerment and other charges, according to media reports.

There were also cases involving school staff or authorities mishandling weapons while disciplining students or threatening to use guns. Guns were also used in times of personal stress, including a school resource officer and a principal using guns in suicides on school grounds, and a teacher barricading himself in an empty classroom and firing shots out a window.