Ghost Guns Used in School Shooting No One Heard About

Oakland, California’s Skyline High School went through the kind of week that should dominate national headlines. A student shot in a school bathroom, two other students arrested, both armed with ghost guns, and a campus plunged into its third lockdown of the school year. But unless you live in the East Bay, odds are you never even heard about it.

And that’s the problem.

On November 13th, just after 1:25 p.m. local time, a 15-year-old boy was shot in the torso inside a Skyline High School bathroom. Two suspects, the victim’s classmates, ages 15 and 16, ran, but not far. Police arrived within two minutes. One was caught trying to scale a fence with a gun in his backpack. The other was spotted by helicopter, hiding on top of the gym. Officers found a second gun on the roof.

Both firearms were ghost guns, and police say the younger suspect is believed to be the one who pulled the trigger. The victim survived thanks to immediate medical care from OPD officers on the scene. All three teenagers knew each other. No motive has been confirmed.

The saddest part? In Oakland, this barely qualifies as shocking anymore.

These weren’t 3D-printed guns or plastic novelties. These were semi-automatic, untraceable weapons assembled from kits or unfinished receivers. The kind you can mail-order in parts and build at home with no paperwork, no background check, no serial number, and no adult supervision required. In other words, guns perfectly suited for teenagers who want the real thing but know they can’t buy it.

Ghost guns have exploded in Oakland, which local advocates have been warning about for years. Faith leaders, violence-prevention workers, and school staff all say the same thing. These kits are everywhere, and they’re getting into the hands of younger and younger kids.

And last week, two of those kids carried them into a school bathroom.

What makes the Skyline shooting even more disturbing is the context. This wasn’t a one-off. It wasn’t even their first lockdown of the semester. On September 26th, there was a lockdown after a false report of a firearm. On November 4th, there was a lockdown due to an upset parent on campus. Then you have November 13th, when a student was shot in a bathroom.

That’s three lockdowns in less than three months.

And it didn’t stop there. The next day, students on a field trip were forced into yet another lockdown when Laney College athletic director John Beam, a beloved Oakland figure, was shot and killed on campus.

By the following week, students had had enough. They walked out of school, marching with signs reading “Books not Bullets” and “Make School Safe.”

They’re teenagers begging adults to protect them. Yet outside the Bay Area, the country barely blinked.

Here’s the undeniable, maddening truth. A student was shot inside a high school bathroom, two other kids were arrested with ghost guns, and this story never broke through nationally. No wall-to-wall cable coverage. No national think pieces. Barely a blip on social media.

So ask yourself, did you hear about this shooting before reading this post? Did anyone outside of Oakland?

We keep talking about school shootings as if they’re isolated tragedies. They’re not. They’re becoming routine enough that a high school shooting involving two armed minors doesn’t even trend anymore.

That normalization is as dangerous as the guns themselves.

Meanwhile, the victim recovers. The two suspects sit in juvenile hall facing attempted murder charges. The school braces for whatever comes next.

And the rest of the country moves on, if it ever even noticed at all.

(Sources)