After years of school shootings, a shift has finally emerged in how we as a country, and crucially the legal system, perceives the accountability of gun owners, specifically parents. Colin Gray, father of the 14-year-old who killed four people and injured nine others in the latest massacre at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, has been charged with two counts of second-degree murder, four counts of involuntary manslaughter and eight counts of cruelty to children.

While Mr. Gray did not pull the trigger, he told authorities that he purchased the AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle for his son as a holiday present in December 2023, just months after authorities contacted the father regarding an investigation that his son had made online threats to “shoot up a middle school.”

Amidst today’s epidemic of gun violence, I consider it necessary and appropriate to call this negligence what it is—a crime. Mr. Gray’s actions have had a direct and tragic impact on his community and his own child, who needed immediate, compassionate mental health care, not a deadly firearm.

What happens next is uncertain, but we’ve already seen a major shift in legal precedent. Earlier this year, two separate juries in Michigan found the parents........

© Psychology Today