Following the shooting last week in a Nashville school, it’s unsurprising that a lot of students have opinions about gun control. It’s great to see young people engaged with the issues and all that, but as many of them don’t understand the overall nuances of the debate they’re wading into, I remain unmoved.

But sometimes, irony is a mother.

You see, a student walkout in Highland Park, Illinois–a town that had its own mass shooting not that long ago–was disrupted due to a lockdown.

Highland Park High School students planned a walkout demanding gun control today, but the demonstrations were quickly interrupted by reports of a possible gun on campus.

The walkout was planned for 10:14am, the same time that the Highland Park July 4th parade shooting started just nine months before.

According to a letter from District 113 Superintendent Bruce Law obtained by ABC7 Chicago, the district received an anonymous tip shortly after the walkout started that a student allegedly had a gun.

The school went into lockdown, and the city released a statement alerting neighbors that there was a “heavy police presence” on campus in light of “a report of a student potentially in possession of a gun at school.”

…

“No shots were fired. The scene has been secured and law enforcement has confirmed that there is no credible reason to continue the lockdown at Highland Park High School,” the update read.

The police added: “Five students have been taken into custody. No further information is available at this time.”

The fact that five students were taken into custody suggests that yes, there was a gun on campus.

At a school that was trying to stage a walkout to protest guns.

Maybe it’s just me, but they should probably start their efforts a whole lot closer to home.

Further, it also seems that the school would have benefitted significantly from things like metal detectors and armed security–things we’re not allowed to seriously discuss in reference to school shootings these days, it seems.

After all, if those had been in place, the odds of any student getting a gun onto the campus becomes a lot less likely. Other hardening efforts might well have mitigated any potential risk as well.

Luckily, one thing we can all agree on is that the good news was that there were no shots fired. While I may disagree with a lot of these kids, no one wants to see them hurt.

That said, I can’t help but think of the irony here. The very things the protestors’ side typically refuses to talk about would have done far more good than more gun control, especially since it’s unlikely any of the students that were taken into custody purchased a handgun lawfully.

Assuming, of course, it was a handgun.

If it was a long gun of some kind, then that’s a high school that has bigger worries than insufficient gun control laws on the books. Again, security would need to be addressed, not new laws.