More than 60 publicly reported incidents of mishandled guns occurred in schools in the past five years, finds a new analysis.
The firearms were carried by employees, including teachers and school police, often with permission from schools, says the report released this month by the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
The report comes as Florida and Tennessee consider expanding the ability of teachers to carry guns in schools.
The group’s analysis relies on data from the Gun Violence Archive, an online database of gun incidents that gathers information from “over 2,500 law-enforcement, media, government, and commercial sources.”
The list of incidents includes unsecured guns that were accessible or visible to children, including a Miami 5th grader reporting a gun left in a restroom by a security guard; unintentional firing of weapons; teachers and school employees using weapons to harm themselves or threaten others; and mishandled firearms during disciplinary incidents.
