Charges against shooter’s parents are justified

For only the second time in American history, a parent has been charged in connection with a mass shooting by a minor. Last week Colin Gray, father of Apalachee High School shooting suspect Colt Gray, was arrested on multiple charges in connection with the Georgia attack that left four dead—charges that experts say push the legal limits of parental responsibility for a child’s alleged gun crime, CNN reported.
Each count against Gray accuses the father of “providing a firearm to Colt Gray with knowledge he was a threat to himself and others,” his Barrow County arrest warrant affidavit shows. Colin Gray now faces up to 180 years in prison if he were to be convicted on all accounts. Colin Gray was visibly upset at the arraignment, rocking back in forth in his chair, shaking and crying as the proceedings took place. For a moment, you could feel sorry for him as he sat there, facing life in prison for murders and attempted murders he didn’t technically actually commit.
But Colin Gray knew his son had mental health issues and bought him a gun anyway. In May 2023 the father and son were interviewed by local authorities in connection with threats to carry out a school shooting. The FBI couldn’t directly tie the threat to the son, and he of course denied making the threat. There were also rambling writings about other school shootings in the son’s room. If the father didn’t know about all this, he should have.
Only recently James and Jennifer Crumbley of Michigan were the first parents to be held criminally responsible for a mass school shooting committed by their child and were sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison for purchasing their mentally ill child a gun, ignoring his obvious cries for mental health and declining to remove him from school when he made violent threats. They didn’t want to be parents. Now they’re inmates.
You can question if a parent should be held responsible for what their children do, but we feel these charges are justified. When you sign up to be a parent, you sign up to be responsible for that child, whether you like it or not. It’s amazing we have to take a test to get a driver’s license, but anyone can have a child whether they are going to give a damn about their child or not. But that’s a discussion for another time.
“What that Michigan (Crumbley) case did is that they put the world and the country on notice that as parents, if you are in possession of a firearm, that you are responsible for the actions of your son,” former New York prosecutor and criminal defense attorney Bernarda Villalona told CNN.
The vast majority of gun owners are responsible, but as this case again demonstrates, some are not. When you’re not a responsible gun owner, this is what can happen. And when four people die, someone must be held responsible. In this case, it’s both the shooter and the person who gave him the tool with which to do it.