Opinion: Why are so many young students carrying guns to school?

Anyone who doubts that Utah has the same problem as the rest of the nation when it comes to firearms in school must have forgotten what happened a year ago in Vernal.

As KSL.com reported that day, a school resource officer at Vernal Middle School, Orion Young, was able to apprehend a student and his gun before anything bad happened. Police had little more to say than that at the time.

This week, The Washington Post filled in some of the details. A student had come to the office, saying he had heard another boy brag he was going to shoot his ex-girlfriend and her best friend. The student said he had seen a loaded gun in the other boy’s backpack. To be safe, he had brought both of the girls to the office when he made the report.

Office workers provided Young with the suspect’s class schedule. He rushed to the boy’s classroom and, with the help of another officer, was able to grab the boy just as he was reaching for his backpack after seeing the officers. Inside the backpack, they found the loaded gun.

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