Second-Grader Fires Handgun In Class

A collection of colorful school supplies including notebooks, pens, and scissors on a desk

A 7-year-old carrying a loaded handgun into a classroom is the kind of nightmare that exposes what really fails first: adult responsibility.

Quick Take

A 7-year-old second-grader at Freetown Elementary School in Glen Burnie, Maryland, accidentally discharged a gun in class and suffered a non-life-threatening hand injury.
Police charged 34-year-old Eashan John Stefanski, the mother’s boyfriend, with leaving a loaded firearm accessible to a minor after the child allegedly brought the gun from home.
Charging documents describe multiple firearms stored in different places, including one under a mattress and one in a car; the discharged Glock 27 was registered to Stefanski.
The classroom teacher secured the weapon and provided first aid; the school dismissed early and reopened the next day with crisis counselors available.

What happened inside the classroom—and what officials confirmed

Anne Arundel County police say the gun went off around 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, inside a second-grade classroom at Freetown Elementary School. The 7-year-old student suffered a hand injury that was described as non-life-threatening and was taken for treatment. Nine students and one teacher were in the room, and officials said no other children were injured during the incident.

School leaders credited the teacher’s immediate response: securing the firearm and providing first aid while the situation was stabilized. Students were dismissed early the same day, and the school reopened on Thursday with additional support for students and staff. Police leadership publicly described the call as unsettling because the initial reports involve “so many unknowns,” a reality that parents in any community immediately understand.

The charge focuses on access, not politics—and the facts are hard to ignore

Investigators served a criminal summons on Thursday, Feb. 5, charging Eashan John Stefanski, 34, of Pasadena, Maryland, with leaving a loaded firearm accessible to a minor. Reports describe Stefanski as the boyfriend of the child’s mother. The charge is a misdemeanor and, according to local reporting, does not carry jail time but can bring a fine up to $1,000. Detectives continued investigating how the child got the gun.

Charging details cited by local outlets paint a picture of guns stored in multiple locations, not all of them secured. Police said Stefanski kept one firearm in his car, another under his mattress, and three rifles in a locked safe in a closet. The handgun that discharged—a Glock 27—was reported as registered to Stefanski. The core public-safety issue here is straightforward: when a minor can access a loaded firearm, every layer of “responsible ownership” has already broken down.

School safety debates collide with a simple reality: kids can’t be the last line of defense

This incident happened during instructional time, in a normal classroom setting, not after hours or at an empty building. That matters because it undercuts the comforting assumption that “it can’t happen here” or that schools can simply add another policy and be done. The first priority remains preventing a child from bringing a gun to school in the first place, and that starts at home with secure storage and clear adult supervision.

Local officials point to gun locks and counseling, while parents look for accountability

County and school leaders responded with a mix of crisis management and prevention messaging. Anne Arundel County officials promoted a free gun lock program through the county health department and highlighted a Gun Violence Intervention Team as a resource. The superintendent said crisis counselors would be available, recognizing that even when injuries are not life-threatening, the trauma to students, teachers, and parents is real and lingering.

Public reporting also captured a parent’s blunt concern about sending kids back after a firearm discharge in class. That reaction isn’t partisan—it’s parental. The limitation in the publicly available information is that investigators have not fully detailed the exact mechanism of how the child obtained the loaded gun, beyond stating it came from the residence. That unanswered question is central, because prevention hinges on specifics: storage method, access points, and day-to-day habits.

Maryland man charged with leaving loaded gun accessible to 7-year-old boy https://t.co/LJ5ETtkAxD

— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) February 6, 2026

For conservatives who defend the Second Amendment, cases like this reinforce a key distinction that often gets lost in national shouting matches: the right to keep and bear arms comes with the duty to keep firearms out of a child’s hands. Nothing in the reported facts supports turning this into a broad attack on lawful gun owners. The facts do support enforcing basic safe-storage expectations and holding the responsible adult accountable when a preventable failure puts a child—and a classroom—at risk.