He Gave His 14-Year-Old Son an AR-15. Now He’s Guilty of Murder. Good. |
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On Tuesday, a jury in Georgia found Colin Gray guilty of second-degree murder, manslaughter, cruelty to children, and reckless conduct, even though he did not kill anyone. The conviction came in the wake of a school shooting carried out by his son, Colt, on Sept. 4, 2024.
Colt Gray killed two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, and injured nine others. As CNN notes, the case against his father has been “testing the limits of who is responsible for a mass shooting.”
On the day of the shooting, Colt brought an AR-15 to school concealed in a backpack. He asked his first-period class teacher how Apalachee High would respond to an active shooter. She was alarmed by his question and alerted others. But not long after that, his shooting spree started.
Just before Colt started shooting, he texted his father, “I’m sorry, it’s not ur fault” and “ur not to blame for any of it.” The Georgia jury was not so forgiving of a parent who gave an AR-15 to a 14-year-old child.
They are only the second jury in American history to find a parent guilty after their child went on a shooting spree at a school. It is an important step forward in what CNN calls a growing nationwide effort “to hold more people accountable for a school shooting, including the shooter’s parents and responding law enforcement officers.”
It is also an important step forward in the effort to curb America’s school shooting epidemic.
Colin Gray’s conviction sends a clear message to parents that they cannot stand idly by in the buildup to a school shooting. And they can no longer supply guns to their children and walk away unscathed if they misuse them.
What Colt Gray did is hardly an anomaly. In 2023, there were 350 school shootings during the year. The number was 332 in 2024 and 116 last year. We cannot stop school shootings unless........