Utah Sixth Grader Brings Gun to School, Says Parents Told Him to

A Utah sixth grader brought a .22 caliber handgun to school on Tuesday and told classmates his parents encouraged him to. The unidentified student, described in the report as an 11-year-old boy, reportedly pulled the gun from his backpack during recess Monday at West Kearns Elementary School in a suburb in Salt Lake City.

Some of the students who knew that the kid had a gun didn't immediately report it. When they did it took teachers about 30-45 seconds to apprehend the kid and confiscate the gun. Apparently, the parents had told the kid to bring the gun to school for protection if anything should happen. The gun was not loaded.

Isabel Rios, a fellow sixth-grader, told teachers and reporters that the student had pointed the gun at her head and he said he was going to kill her. There is no way a sixth grader has enough responsibility to carry gun. Some kids know the responsibility of having guns and know how to be safe with guns. Does that mean they should be able to bring guns to school? Are the parents justified in letting their kid bring a gun to school after what happened in Connecticut?