AURORA, Colo. (KDVR) — The Aurora Police Department confirmed its officers confiscated 14 guns so far this school year from students in both the Cherry Creek School District and Aurora Public Schools.
The Problem Solvers learned these guns were taken from high schools but are still waiting to confirm which high schools they were and whether they were taken from female and male students.
Experts say this highlights the importance of school resource officers, but police say this also highlights a bigger, more alarming issue.
“Some of the kids, you know, they’re afraid,” interim Aurora Police Chief Art Acevedo said. “They look at some of the youth-on-youth violence in this country, they look at the active shootings in this country.”
Acevedo talked about how political discourse is changing how kids view safety.
“They’re growing up in a country where (because of) many politicians and many in society, they’re being trained to believe that guns are the answer to everything,” Acevedo said.
Aurora Youth Commission member weighs in
“It’s definitely a lot more alarming now and more realistic,” Advik Shrivastava said. He’s a senior at a high school in one of those districts.
He’s also a member of the Aurora Youth Commission, which advises city officials on the interests of local youth.
“I didn’t know that, like, 14 guns were confiscated, that’s definitely like very scary to hear,” he said.
Both districts combined have thousands of high school students. Relatively, it may not seem like those 14 guns taken are a lot, but Acevedo said the numbers are still concerning.
“When you think about 14 firearms in two school districts with thousands of students, it may not seem like a lot. But it should be alarming, because those are the 14 we know about,” he said.
Meanwhile, if you see something suspicious in your school, and want to anonymously make a report, you can do so by going to Safe2Tell.org.