Opening Salvo | Kids Need
Actual Gun-Safety Training

Eleven-year-old Sakir Everett came upon a dangerous situation at his school and, because he had some knowledge about firearms and firearms safety, he felt the need to act before a tragedy occurred.

It was May 2025. Sakir was then a middle-school student at Dwight Rich School of the Arts in Lansing, Mich. That day, he discovered a fellow student had brought a loaded handgun to school. So, Sakir did what he thought best. He disassembled the handgun and disposed of the ammunition.

When school staff discovered the disassembled firearm, the student who brought the firearm to school was arrested.

However, school administrators also suspended Sakir for a year, as, when he handled the firearm in question, the school considered it to be "weapons possession." Plus, Sakir did not immediately inform school staff of the firearm's presence on school grounds. (The Lansing School District was contacted for comment, but at press time had not responded.)

Savitra McClurkin, Sakir's mother, says her son had never been in trouble before and was a very good student. Her son only did what he did, she says, because he was scared. Sakir believed he was helping the other students by making the firearm inoperable. He had received his knowledge about firearms from a relative who taught him about guns and hunting. …