Georgia second-grader brings pistol to class in backpack

A teacher at an elementary school in Brunswick, Georgia, looked into the backpack of an 8-year old boy in her second-grade class and found that he had brought a pistol to school.  Luckily the gun was unloaded.

From an article:

School spokesman, Jim Weidhaas, said the teacher was, "Looking for candy that she suspected may have been taken off of the desk." 

The pistol that was found was a Raven .25-caliber semi-automatic. Weidhaas said the gun was not loaded, and that the second-grader was not carrying any ammunition.
"We think he brought it to school to show to his friends," he said. 

That game of show and tell came with serious consequences, a one-year suspension, the mandatory minimum by Georgia state law.  

Now, investigators have to figure out how the 8-year-old was able to get his hands on a gun.  Who was the adult in charge?  And will they be punished?   

"I couldn't comment on that," Weidhaas said. 

Administrators say the teacher did the right thing, by discreetly removing the boy from the classroom without causing a commotion. And the good news is that no one was hurt. 

"I think with young children, they just don't understand the consequences and unfortunately these things happen sometimes," said Weidhaas.

"Unfortunately these things happen sometimes" isn't an excuse.

Every gun in the hands of a child must first pass through the hands of an adult.