A youth found with an airsoft-type gun on a Seymour school bus Tuesday afternoon faces the possibility of criminal charges, police report.

The incident involving a Seymour Middle School student was reported at 3:50 p.m. in a bus that had stopped at Ash and Apple streets on the city’s south side.

The gun, which shoots plastic BB-type projectiles, had been spotted by another student, who reported it to the bus driver, School Resource Officer Keith Williams said.

Williams, who is investigating the incident, said the gun was confiscated as evidence by police, and he eventually will forward his report to the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office for review.

Williams said the youth was removed from the bus and taken to Seymour Middle School to meet with school administrators.

“His mother was immediately called and was present during the meeting with the child,” Williams said.

Williams said any action taken by the school corporation against the student is considered a privacy issue and cannot be released.

Police Chief Bill Abbott said the youth was not arrested but eventually could be charged with a variety of things, up to and including criminal recklessness, depending upon the circumstances of how the gun was discovered.

He said someone seeing the gun may or may not have thought it was real because airsoft-type guns are life-size and resemble real weapons.

“It was still a very dangerous situation,” Abbott said.

He said airsoft-type handguns are supposed to have an orange tip so it can be identified as such, and the one the youth had did.

“But I’ve seen real guns with orange tips,” he said.

Because the gun was not a firearm, the seventh-grader does not face any firearm-related charges, Abbott said.

Airsoft-type guns originally were invented as toys, but most gun manufacturers now make such guns as replicas of their real guns, and police use them for training purposes because the plastic projectiles are cheaper, Abbott said.

Seymour Police Department uses such weapons for training, he added.