Six-year-old boy brings loaded gun to class

Police in Ohio say it 'could have been the worst day that school could have experienced'

Police in Columbus, Ohio recovered a loaded gun from a six-year-old boy's backpack. (Columbus Division of Police)

A six-year-old boy in Ohio is in protective custody after he brought his grandfather's loaded gun to school.

The first grade student at Kids Care Elementary in Columbus packed a semi-automatic pistol and a dozen bullets into his school bag, alarming another student who reported the gun to a teacher.

"That child did exactly what we ask students to do: see something, say something", said Det Dave Bucy with the Columbus Division of Police.

The boy's grandfather reported the gun missing within 24 hours of police arriving at the school. Police brought the boy to Columbus police headquarters for an interview, which Det Bucy said was "difficult".

"The reason why the child brought the gun to school could have been any number of reasons", said Det Bucy. "I think it was curiosity, to one extent. I think it was, 'Look what I have in my bag' to another extent. The true reason was not determined".

Police did not forward charges against the boy to a juvenile prosecutor "due to competency and his age", according to police.

Det Bucy said the school staff helped prevent what "could have been the worst day that school could have experienced".

Gun deaths among children have climbed drastically within the past 20 years in the US.

Nearly 40,000 children were shot and killed from 1999 to 2017, according to a report from Florida Atlantic University's Schmidt College of Medicine.

More than 5,700 children in the US receive care in hospital emergency rooms for gun-related injuries every year — and nearly 21 per cent of those injuries are unintentional, according to the journal Pediatrics.

There have been more than 80 school-related shootings on US campuses so far this year, according to gun control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety.