A Texas junior high student found something quite unusual on their school's playground this past Friday (January 24, 2025)- a fully loaded magazine.

The incident occurred at the Childress ISD Junior High School, according to the ISD's Facebook page.

Childress is a small town of under 6,000 people that is situated about halfway between Amarillo and Wichita Falls.

It was later discovered that the magazine belonged to a police officer who dropped it while conducting canine training.

The initial news of the magazine was alarming to some commentators, who noted that it likely meant a person on campus had a gun. Luckily, the source of the magazine was discovered just a couple of hours later.

After the update, some commentators on the post questioned why the school was not put on lockdown protocol, and also questioned how the officer could have been so careless.

Neither the ISD nor the police have answered those questions.

How Often Do Police Lose Their Service Weapon?

This is a difficult question to answer because not every department discloses this information. Guns can be accidentally dropped, as in this case, or can be stolen.

More often than not, police guns find their way into the public because the department sold the gun to offset the costs of new weapons.

Of course, this means the guns can fall into the wrong hands. According to The Trace:

Records released as part of a lawsuit against the federal government show that tens of thousands of former police guns have surfaced at crime scenes in recent years.

To be more precise, 52,529 former police guns have been found at crime scenes between 2006-2021.