Guns in schools are never a great thing. There’s a reason we restrict minors from doing all sorts of things, and while I do believe some teens can be trusted with firearms, there are other teens I wouldn’t trust with a photograph of a gun. That’s why, even if the laws allow campus carry on public schools campuses, students aren’t going to be allowed to do so.

Once they’re in college and have a permit, that’s different, but high school age or younger? Nope.

Yet it’s happening. In fact, it’s happening a lot more these days, it seems.

Multiple parents, students, and the Board of Education addressed recent weapons on campus during Tuesday’s Board of Education Meeting.

“Every day we have a fight at school sometimes many fights and as you know multiple guns have been found,” said Hopewell High School Freshman Sara Holland.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools officials confirmed 15 guns have been found on multiple CMS campuses since August 26.

Two of those guns were found on Hopwell’s campus last Wednesday after a fight and lockdown; five students were charged with possession of weapons on school grounds.

Obviously, parents there are concerned, as they should be.

However, it’s not unique to that school system, either. I’ve seen similar stories happening all across the nation. Guns are showing up on school campuses far more often than they had been.

So what’s going on? Why are kids carrying guns to school, and can anything be done about it?

While schools will look at various methods to reduce the potential for guns entering their campuses, it’s important to note that schools are typically a reflection of society as a whole, particularly in the same locality.

In many of our cities, violent crime is surging. People are shooting others at an alarming rate and for some idiotic reasons, it seems. As a result, others who are part of the criminal subculture are carrying guns more often to try and protect themselves, regardless of the rules against them doing so. (Law-abiding citizens are carrying far more often too, but they’re obeying the rules that involve them doing so.)

Some students idolize this culture for some inane reason. They seek to replicate it. They do whatever they can to be more like their thuggish idols or whatever.

That means they’re going to have guns in school.

Sure, put metal detectors at the entrances and try to make it as difficult as possible for them to do so, but to really treat the underlying cause, we need to change the culture that somehow leads to these kids idolizing the worst of American society. Get them to start looking up to doctors, lawyers, accountants, entrepreneurs, and so on, and then maybe they’ll stop trying to carry guns to school.

But as long as they idolize thugs, they’ll try to act like thugs. This is the natural order of things, so you either address it or you come to terms with this reality. There’s no middle ground on something like this.

And it’s really all you can do to thwart the problem of guns in schools.