A school student in Western Australia posted a video of him holding a handgun, causing concern that a copycat situation could happen following the terrible Texas shooting last week.
As per the Daily Mail, the WA student, who goes to Kalgoorlie-Boulder Community High School in Goldfields, posted several pictures and videos to Snapchat featuring him wielding the handgun last week.
In one clip, the boy could be seen listening to a hip hop track while reloading the gun. The Snapchat pictures and videos have since been deleted. That led one of his fellow students to express their anxiety in a social media post, insisting the boy would bring the weapon to school for a ‘shoot up.’
Luckily the Department of Education and WA Police immediately investigated the Snapchat series, with officers heading to the school. Once there, they confirmed there was no “active shooter threat” and that the handgun hadn’t actually been brought on school grounds.
While it’s still unknown how the student accessed the weapon in the first place, or whether it was even real, WA Premier Mark McGowan used the incident to remind Australia that its strict gun laws matter.
“Obviously, there’s very heightened concerns about firearms in light of what occurred in America,” he said. “No matter what happens, we never, never, never want to get down the road that America has now.”
Copycat shootings have been a real fear in the aftermath of the Uvalde school massacre. As reported by Axios, over 12 school districts across the U.S. state reported receiving copycat threats since last week.
Several people have been arrested for allegedly making dangerous threats to conduct school shootings, with guns actually being found on campuses in some cases.
It’s led to widespread panic in Texas schools, with many going into strict lockdown. At least one district even decided to end the school year early due to the “continued rumours of threats.”
