Utah Boy Brings Gun To School Citing Newtown Shooting Fears
KEARNS, Utah (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Authorities said a Utah sixth-grader caught with a gun at school told school administrators he brought the weapon to defend himself in case of an attack similar to the mass shooting last week in Newtown, Conn.
The Salt Lake Tribune reported that two classmates at West Kearns Elementary School reported the gun to a teacher toward the end of the school day Monday.
Granite School District spokesman Ben Horsley says the teacher "immediately apprehended the student," and police responded shortly after.
Horsley told KSL-TV that an unloaded gun and ammunition were found in the 11-year-old's backpack.
Authorities have not released the child's name.
Horsley said school police are investing reports that the boy pointed the gun at another child's head. He said such accounts haven't been confirmed.
Authorities said no one was injured.
Newtown Gunman Adam Lanza, 20, shot and killed his mother Friday morning, then drove her car to Sandy Hook Elementary School, where he opened fire and killed 20 children and six adults. He then turned the gun on himself.
The shooting has reignited the gun control debate in America with some, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg calling for reinstatement of the assault weapons ban that expired in 2004, a ban on high capacity magazines, background checks for every gun sold and a law to make gun trafficking a felony
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