A six-year-old with a hand-gun in her backpack and two teenagers with their own rifle and hitlist are just three of over 30 arrests made this week across the US as a heightened awareness of guns among students has helped to thwart potential copycat school killings.
A girl classmate overheard the California 17-year-olds talking about a list, and she told her father, who notified authorities. A police spokesman said the list contained the names of 16 students "they considered to be targets." The boys are being charged with conspiracy to murder.
In Indianapolis, Mr Calvin Sistrunk jnr and Ms Shawnee Sistrunk were charged with felonious neglect on Wednesday after their six-year-old daughter took a loaded handgun to kindergarten on March 1st.
In California, 16 students have been detained since Tuesday for threatening teachers and students or bringing weapons on campus.
Among them was a 15-year-old Perris High School student who boasted that he could outdo the massacre of 13 at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, in 1999.
