8-Year Old Flashes Gun On Upstate New York School Bus; Dad Busted

As fear of gun violence dominates conversations in school districts across the nation, an 8-year old child rattled a small upstate New York community by bringing a gun on his school bus.

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According to everytownresearch.org, 19,000 children and teens are injured or killed by gun violence each year. 3 million in that same age group are exposed to it annually. So, when an 8-year old shows a classmate at gun that they brought to school in a rural community with about 9,000 residents in Oswego County, people get shaken and they want answers.

According to Darian Stevenson of syracuse.com, the father of the 8-year old child, Robert K. Weaver, 34, of Schroeppel, was arrested on Wednesday. Phoenix Central School District Superintendent, Christopher J. Byrnes, sent a letter to parents Wednesday describing the incident.

Byrnes said that Weaver’s 8-year-old child showed the gun to a classmate on a school bus after school. The student who saw the gun reported it to the bus driver the next day. Police went to Weaver's home to investigate after his child was searched and questioned by school officials at Michael A. Maroun Elementary School. The report said that the student was searched on Wednesday at school an no gun was found.

Officers found the handgun the child brought to school at Robert K. Weaver's home, Byrne said. The handgun did not have ammunition and it was not operable, he said. Police said the gun is from the late 1800s, early 1900s. Law enforcement also said that modern ammunition is no longer made for the firearm. Andy Bucher, a spokesperson for the Oswego County Sheriff’s Office, said that Robert K. Weaver has been charged with two counts of third-degree criminal possession of a weapon and one count of endangering the welfare of a child. Bucher said the child will not face charges.