California teen with ‘ghost gun’ arrested after threatening to shoot ‘up a school,’ officials say

A selfmade gun and brass knuckles had been discovered on a California teenager accused of sending social media messages about capturing “up a college” and “children,” authorities stated.

The 17-year-old highschool senior, who was not recognized, was arrested on prices that included prison threats, possession of brass knuckles and possession of an unregistered gun generally often known as a “ghost gun,” in response to a press release on Saturday from the Menifee Police Division.

The social media messages didn’t point out a selected faculty, however the pupil attended Heritage Excessive Faculty in Menifee, about 30 miles south of San Bernardino, police stated.

The preliminary investigation revealed that along with the threats of violence, the suspect had been “harassing college students and was in possession of a firearm. Detectives authored search warrants for the suspect and his residence,” police stated.

The boy was booked into the Riverside County Juvenile Corridor, police stated.

The general public ought to know “all threats, whether or not particular, implied, or in any other case, that trigger worry in our neighborhood is not going to be tolerated,” police stated.

Ghost weapons are created by assembling items, bought collectively in a package or individually, to create a completely functioning gun, in response to police. The kits might be bought with out a background test and don’t have serial numbers, making them accessible to people who find themselves legally prohibited from buying weapons, together with minors, authorities stated.

President Joe Biden in April introduced new restrictions on ghost weapons, requiring makers of gun kits to incorporate a serial quantity on the firearms and for sellers to comply with the identical commonplace as with different weapons, together with requiring a background test for buy.

“These weapons are the weapons of selection for a lot of criminals,” Biden stated. “We’re going to do the whole lot we will to deprive them of that selection.”

The Perris Union Excessive Faculty District stated in a press release Monday: “Whereas there was no risk particular to Heritage Excessive Faculty, we wished to make sure our households had been conscious of this Incident. Mother and father and guardians, please take the time to speak together with your college students concerning the applicable use of social media. All threats of violence are taken significantly and we are going to proceed to work diligently with our legislation enforcement companions to pursue any particular person of curiosity.”

The incident in California comes on the heels of a fifth grade pupil in Florida being charged with sending a textual content message threatening to hold out a mass capturing there.

In a Could 28 assertion, the Lee County Sheriff’s Workplace stated it had discovered earlier that day of a “threatening textual content message” despatched by a pupil at an elementary faculty.

It stated its native faculty risk enforcement crew was instantly notified and began investigating. The ten-year-old boy was interviewed and charged later with “making a written risk to conduct a mass capturing,” the sheriff’s workplace stated.

The Florida risk got here simply days after the capturing at Robb Elementary Faculty in Uvalde, Texas, left 19 college students and two academics lifeless.