Child brings gun to Memphis elementary school, mother arrested

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – A Memphis mother is in jail because her 6-year-old child brought a gun to Germanshire Elementary School on Tuesday, five days after another mother was arrested for a similar incident at Geeter K-8.

According to Memphis police, officers were called to an armed group attack at Germanshire Elementary School on Tuesday.

A kindergarten teacher was helping her children unpack their backpacks when she noticed that one student's backpack was “unusually heavy.” When she checked, she found an unloaded handgun in the child's bag, according to the police report.

She sent the bag to the principal's office and called the police. The child's mother arrived at the scene and told police the gun was hers and that she usually hid it under a sofa at home.

The mother was arrested and charged with serious child endangerment.

This came five days after another mother was arrested following a similar incident at Geeter K-8 School.

Officers responded to the incident at approximately 9 a.m. on September 5, 2024, at Geeter K-8 School on Horn Lake Road after receiving a report that a student had a handgun. Police said they arrested the student and recovered the weapon. No injuries were reported.

When officers arrived, they found a 6-year-old boy passing the gun to other students, an affidavit states. A school employee recovered the gun from the student's backpack.

After checking the gun's serial number, officers determined that the gun had been stolen. They then spoke with the boy's mother, who confessed that the gun belonged to her. The mother also admitted to purchasing the gun from an unknown person.

ABC24 spoke to shooting instructor Bennie Cobb shortly after the incident in Geeter.

He said this mother allegedly did almost everything wrong when it came to gun safety.

“If you have a gun and there are kids in the house, you have to take all safety precautions,” Cobb said. “Kids are curious. They're going to get those guns.”

Cobb said the best way to keep a gun safe is to make sure the chamber is empty, install a gun lock and store the gun in a safe.

He believes that this could have prevented Thursday's gun scare.

Although no one was injured, the parents are still in shock.

“It's really traumatic to know that a young child, 6 years old … has access to a gun without the parents knowing,” said Darrin Rayford, father of a Geeter K-8 student whose son is in sixth grade.

That's why Cobb teaches gun safety classes to children once a month. They take a gun safety pledge and are even allowed to shoot the guns so they can see that they are not toys.

“When we look at gun safety for children – of course with parents or guardians involved – we find that children know more about guns than adults,” Cobb said.

According to Cobb, this is something more and more parents and children should learn, especially in 2024. His courses are free for everyone to attend.

“We have to deal with this not only in our communities, but also in our schools,” Rayford said. “So it's like our children aren't safe anywhere unless they're near us.”

Rayford said they would welcome the Geeter K-8 school returning to its clear backpack policy.