A 14-year-old high school freshman pulled a semiautomatic handgun while on campus and fired four shots, two of which hit school buildings. Fortunately, no one was harmed in the February shooting at Ranum High School in Denver, which police said took place after the student gunman and another student quarreled in school hallway.

The alleged gunman, who was not identified because of his age, then ran off campus before being apprehended at gunpoint by a sheriff's deputy stationed at the school. The boy was being held without bond at a juvenile detention center while prosecutors decided whether to try him as an adult. Among the charges the suspect could face are menacing, illegal discharge of a firearm and possession of a weapon on school grounds.

School officials admitted that the troubled suspect had been investigated just a few weeks earlier, when a parent and several students claimed the boy was bringing a knife to school. However, a subsequent locker search and further investigation did not produce a weapon, according to school officials.

In another February gun incident, three middle school students in Flint, MI, were arrested after a loaded gun was brought to school. Two boys and a girl, all seventh graders at Longfellow Middle School, were taken into custody by the school's School Resource Officer.