"We don't see any criminal behavior on the part of the child," said Bill Toohey, a police spokesman. "Why do 7-year-olds do anything?"
He said detectives with the violent crimes unit have taken up the investigation - not because the boy's intentions were violent but because the unit includes the department's gun squad.
"Those are the people who track guns," Toohey said. "We are now looking to find out the history of those weapons."
In Maryland, leaving a firearm where someone knows or should know that a child could access it is a misdemeanor that carries no jail time and a maximum fine of $1,000.
In 2004, Baltimore County prosecutors decided not to charge a Randallstown man whose 4-year-old son accidentally killed himself with his father's gun during a game of hide-and-seek. In return, the man agreed to tell his story in a gun-safety video and public service announcement.
In 2006, the father of an 8-year-old boy who shot a little girl in the arm with the father's handgun at a Germantown day care facility was charged criminally.
Hall, the principal at Randallstown Elementary, said the boy will face a disciplinary hearing with school system administrators.
The federal Gun-Free Schools Act of 1994 requires that school systems expel any student for a year who brings a firearm to school. The law allows local school systems to modify that punishment.
Fifteen Maryland students were expelled last year for firearms violations and 29 were suspended, according to the Maryland State Department of Education.
Hall said it was the first time in her 12 years as a principal that she had had to deal with a child bringing a gun to school.
"My hope is that it will be the last," she said. "We have a good school, and we want to keep it that way."
jennifer.mcmenamin@baltsun.com
Sun reporters Liz Bowie, Richard Irwin and Gina Davis contributed to this article.
