As a parent who is a legal (and responsible) gun owner, the thought of your child being injured by a firearm is devastating.
Possibly second to that thought is the terrifying thought that your child may have done something terrible with a firearm.
Not only would you be grieved by the horrible actions that your child took, but you’d also be grieved for the people injured and possible lives lost, along with he pain that the victims’ families would be dealing with.
To make it even more complicated and distressing, have you thought to consider if you would be held responsible for your child’s actions in that horrible situation?
Most people haven’t, but as I talked about before, one man that is having to face those consequences now. Kate Brumback with the Associated Press writes,
A man who gave his son the gun he used to kill two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Georgia was sentenced Thursday to 15 years in prison.
Colin Gray’s sentencing comes days after his son, Colt Gray, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in the Sept. 4, 2024, shooting at the school 45 miles (70 kilometers) northeast of Atlanta. Colt Gray, 16, had pleaded guilty to murder and other charges.
What were the charges that the father, Colin Gray, was found guilty of? Brumback continues:
A jury in March found Colin Gray guilty of second-degree murder in the deaths of two 14-year-old students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo. Georgia law defines second-degree murder as causing the death of a child by committing the crime of cruelty to children. Gray was also found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the killings of teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53.
This is a terrible, tragic situation.
It’s important to be clear about this particular situation as being different from many other mass shooting incidents in which the shooter stole the firearms from the parents.
In this case, the father gave a firearm to the son who committed the shooting. This child wouldn’t have been able to buy that gun in Georgia at his age, so the gift may have been the only way that he could get the gun.
But the father gave the gun to his child who had a history of fascination with mass shootings and with violence incidents. And this is why the court found him guilty of those crimes even though he didn’t pull the trigger. They concluded that he made the situation possible.
It’s tragic and horrible all around.
And the lesson that you should learn from it? Make sure that you know your kids and that they are mature enough to handle a firearm before they have one of their own.