2Am4Sure
For your comments to be considered valid you would have to assume that guns are inhabited by an evil spirit. A spirit that will give life to objects of metal, or turn the person who touches a gun into a crazed killer.
The kid found a gun, put it into a bag, and gave it to authorities. For that he is punished? It is a no win situation for the child and punishment is teaching him the wrong message.
According to the article, the gun appeared to be cocked and ready to fire. Suppose it was a real gun and it went off and killed another kid on the bus? Better off believing in evil spirits in that case, I say.
That isn't the safest, recommended course of action. He should have left the gun alone and told an adult asap. He made a well-intentioned but incorrect choice and got a slap on the wrist (bringing a gun to school is typically punished by suspension, to my understanding). What's the big deal?
The eddie eagle version of this would have been that the kid told the bus driver, who then either pulled out her cellphone or flagged another adult with a cell phone and called the proper authorities (local gun dealer) and stood near the gun in question until the proper authority arrived, ensuring that another less responsible child didn't find it instead. This is, of course, assuming the bus driver didn't know how to make a gun safe and turn it in to the proper authorities, assuming it was a real gun, and not actually a toy.
It is entirely possible, though, that the kid didn't follow the EE rules because he had enough firearms knowledge through the boy scouts to know an empty gun (bent open)
who knows... there's more to this story, but the kid should have felt comfortable to tell the bus driver and trust her to do the right thing.