Nearing the end of the route, the gun was reported to the school bus driver by a student who saw it in another child’s bag. The gun was a .32 caliber single action revolver, with no ammunition, and the child who had the weapon is 7-years-of-age in the second grade.

The Walton County Sheriff’s Office has no reason to believe the student had malicious intent when bringing the weapon to school. The gun was not loaded and no ammunition was found in the child’s possession.

“One of our main priorities as an agency is to protect the children in our county,” said Sheriff Michael Adkinson. “However, we also pride ourselves in protecting families from humiliation and not invading the privacy of those affected by these occurrences.”

This incident is still under investigation and the family was contacted. Any punishment will be handled by the Walton County School District.

“At no time during this investigation did we believe there was a threat to the school or that an arrest was necessary,” said Adkinson.

An investigation is still open in this case.