Citation(s) from the GunPolicy.org literature library
Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. 2024 ‘Guns in Schools in Washington DC.’ Guns in Public. San Francisco, CA: Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. 26 April
Relevant contents
[Editor's note: The Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence regularly updates its webpages with new data as US gun regulation evolves state by state. For the most up-to-date information on US gun laws, please refer to the Giffords URL below]
Guns in Schools in the District of Columbia
The District of Columbia prohibits any person from illegally possessing a firearm within a gun free zone. Since the District no longer licenses persons to carry firearms and now prohibits the carrying of firearms, openly or concealed, in public, firearms are effectively banned in gun free zones. A "gun free zone" is defined to include any area within 1,000 feet of a public or private elementary school, vocational school, secondary school, college, junior college, or university, or an event sponsored by any of these entities.
Any student who brings a firearm into a public school in the District shall be expelled for not less than one year. The Superintendent of Schools shall refer to the criminal justice or juvenile delinquency system, simultaneous with expulsion, any student who is expelled for bringing a firearm into a District public school.
District public school regulations governing student discipline deem "Tier V" behaviors - those that are illegal, cause significant disruption to the school operation, or cause substantial harm to the student or others - as behaviors worthy of either off-site suspension or expulsion. Behaviors such as the use, possession or bringing to school of any loaded or unloaded firearm and any behavior that violates the federal Gun-Free Schools Act will result in a student's long-term suspension off–site or in expulsion…