SANDOWN, N.H. (AP) – A judge Tuesday declined to issue an arrest warrant charging a Sandown woman with child endangerment for allowing her 8-year-old son to carry a gun to school.

Derry District Court Judge Lawrence Warhall said police did not show sufficient probable cause to charge Donna Henderson, 44, with the crime.

The police application for the warrant quoted the boy as saying his mother allowed him to take the unloaded and disabled pistol to school as long as he kept it in a bag. The boy said he intended to take the gun to a friend’s house after school.

The warrant said the boy received the gun from his grandfather in Virginia, a retired police officer.

Police Chief Scott Currier said if police or someone had shown up at the school and the gun was pointed at officers or someone else, “it could have been a very tragic situation.”

The Sandown North Elementary School second-grader has been suspended.

Authorities said the .25-caliber semiautomatic pistol had no bullets and its firing pin had been removed. The gun was found by a teacher as school was winding down Friday.

“It was a wake-up call for all of us that this kind of thing can happen anywhere,” Timberlane Regional Superintendent Douglas McDonald said Monday.

He said the boy brought the gun to school not to harm but to show to a friend.

AP-ES-02-10-04 1743EST