California shocker: Boy, 12, held for shooting 13-year-old at school

A 13-year-old student of a California middle school was shot and wounded on Monday. Police have taken into custody the prime suspect—a 12-year-old boy.

The shocking incident occurred at East Oakland’s Madison Park Academy, where some 750 sixth to 12th graders study.

Officers who reached the scene found a 13-year-old boy with a gunshot wound and spotted a 12-year-old boy running away, Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong told reporters, adding that a firearm was recovered from the boy.

‘Saddens me’
“It saddens me to even think that a kid would bring a gun to school,” Armstrong said. “No parent wants to send their kids to school in the day and then be called saying your kid’s been shot. It’s the worst thing you can hear.”

But in gun-obsessed America, parents live with this chilling fear every day.

Statistics
Since 1970, there have been more than 1,650 incidents of shootings in US schools, resulting in over 600 fatalities and some 1,700 injuries, per the Center for Homeland Defense and Security.

In 2022 alone, about 30 school shootings have taken place across the US, killing 27 people—24 children among them.

It’s no wonder then that the private security industry that focuses on fortifying schools and universities in the US is a nearly $3 billion annual business.

Gun violence—the leading cause of premature death in the US—kills more than 38,000 people and injures almost 85,000 each year, according to APHA.

Futile attempts
These staggering statistics prompted President Joe Biden to sign a sweeping gun control bill in June to combat shooting incidents.

But things haven’t changed much.

There have been at least 315 incidents of mass shootings in the US so far this year, at least 10 of them since Biden signed the new bill.

“I am afraid that our community is becoming numb to this horrific behavior,” Oakland police’s Armstrong said.