The father of the mass shooting suspect accused of killing four people at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, told investigators this week he had purchased the gun used in the killings as a holiday present for his son in December 2023, according to two law enforcement sources with direct knowledge of the investigation.
Colt Gray, a 14-year-old student, is accused of killing two students and two teachers with an AR-style rifle in the Wednesday shooting. Nine more people were hospitalized.
One source told CNN the AR-15-style rifle was purchased at a local gun store as a Christmas present.
So his son was being investigated for making threats to shoot up the school and he decided that the best gift was a gun that could allow his son to act on those threats.
Charging him in connection with the shooting seems appropriate.
I bet physical and/or verbal abuse was abundant in that household, probably spousal abuse as well, up to and including sexual and financial.
No sexual abuse reported, but everything else, yeah.
More red flags than a May Day Parade, like usual.
And what proof do you have of this? If you have any sources please link them.
Yup they can go the same route as the Oxford, MI shooter and charge the parents. They got 10 years, if more parents got charged parents might wise up. This sounds 100% the exact same situation. Oxford kids parents told him not to get caught next time when he was in trouble for looking at ammunition during school.
Would being charged with crimes your child commits stop dumb fucks from reproducing?
Yeah, this is where I have issue. I grew up around guns and hunting. When I passed my safe hunters I got my first 12 gage shotgun and then got a 410 later that year along with a 50 cal black powder rifle and the. Get a few AR’s and AK/SKS’s along the way. I grew up respecting them and it was a normal part of life. People had gun racks in their trucks with guns in them in high school at the time.
But this kid obviously had issues and they should have been in a safe away from him. I do think holding parents liable with start changing things slowly. I wish it was an over night change but we need to do it more often
Call me crazy, but I don’t think children should own guns.
he gifted him a gun to protect him from school shooting. that’s right-wing logic
And they were designed and marketed for civilian use. Imagine if it’s legal to purchase military grade assault rifles.
I grew up in a rural area with just my mom. We had two handguns and a shotgun hidden in the house. Anytime we went walking in the pasture a gun came with us in case of snakes or wild dogs and a couple of times per year i was required to shoot at cans with each one. I wasn’t interested in them and didn’t like shooting them, but understood her desire for me to feel comfortable using them ‘just in case’. We often took long road trips to visit family and would stop to nap in rest areas for a few hours. The small handgun was always beside the driver’s seat. It was the 70s and early 80s and nothing was locked. 22 in the nightstand drawer, 38 in a dresser drawer, and shotgun behind her bedroom door - all loaded and ready. It didn’t seem weird; it was just what my mom did to try to keep us safe.
Not everybody is fortunate to have responsibility and be mentally sane. Even the father in this case probably told the kid the to dos and not to dos of owning a gun (or not. Idk man). But you know, all this happened.
Yeah. I don’t really know why i shared all of that. Just struggling to make sense of something senseless, i guess. i visit several schools per day and we all whine about the inconvenience of badge fobs, locked classrooms, being required to put the alert app on our phones and then having it constantly going off all day with every drill at every school, etc. Then when something like this happens i feel shitty for whining, heartbroken for those families, and thankful that it wasn’t my schools, teachers, kids, … It sucks. And the worst part is that we know it will happen again and again. Rambling…sorry.
Why these people giving weapons to their kids before they’re even in high school?
I could see if you’re really into guns and you want to teach your kid the importance of gun safety, etc. But that firearm should 110% be under lock and key so that the child has no way to access it outside of parental supervision. This sounds like gross negligence, and a disturbing trend of parents for whatever reason buying troubled youth firearms in what I think most would consider counter to good judgement.
Edit - Ugh… It’s even worse after reading this part…
The timeline the teen’s father provided to authorities would put the gun purchase months after authorities first contacted Gray and his family to investigate school shooting threats made online.
If your kid is really into guns, then buy them a bb gun for fucks sake. Teach them gun safety with something that won’t kill anyone. What kind of brain dead parents are out there thinking that buying a child a gun is a good idea? THE KID’S NOT EVEN OLD ENOUGH TO DRIVE FFS
You know… This whole gun thing. You’re on to something. Some people are absolutely brain dead and have no critical thinking skills. That’s what scares me about guns. Even with the argument that guns are just tools. Have you looked around America and seen the types of people that exist? Now imagine them all owning guns.
Fucking scary.
Should be illegal to buy a child a gun until they are 18. You can 2A all you want about defending the country but you fuckers ain’t gonna tell me you will have a child in your militia. Can’t drive until 16, can’t smoke until 18, can’t drink until 21 but you can go out and fire deadly weapons whenever your parents say it’s cool.
you fuckers ain’t gonna tell me you will have a child in your militia
“We absolutely will.” -Conservatives
21 now to smoke.
And hopefully they keep charging the parents. Got kids? Got firearms? They better be locked in a safe and only the parent should know the code…some people are dumb as fuck.
I think part of the reason for this is that you have a lot of these dipshit parents who see headlines like this and think “the LiBeRaLs are going to use this week’s school shooting as justification for taking our guns; I’ll show them, I’ll give my children guns and be the proof that guns aren’t the problem”. At least, with how often I see the sentiment of “well my kids have guns and haven’t killed anybody” across social media, that’s my assumption.
They all think they’re responsible gun owners. And maybe some of them are. Hell, maybe most of them are. But a non-zero amount aren’t, and we need to have safeguards in place instead of “nothing we can do but pray for stronger doors on the schools”.
Except responsible gun owners wouldn’t buy their child a gun and give them access to it whenever they please. Any firearms I may or may not possess would be locked in a safe which no one but any spouse I may hypothetically have had access to. Unfortunately I lost all my firearms in a tragic boating accident a few years back.
What I’m trying to say is that, while the government shouldn’t be allowed to come check that people have their guns locked up when not in use, there should absolutely be repercussions for anyone found to not be doing so.
My dad gave me a gun for one of my earlier birthdays. It was a bolt action .22 that went right into a gun safe that I couldn’t access…It was a pretty shitty present as I didn’t enjoy hunting at the time but in retrospect I’m glad I learned gun safety and shooting.
Why the fuck would you buy a 14 year old an AR15 style rifle, especially after he already had a history of making school shooting threats at school? Dude deserves prison for a long time.
Respecting a gun as a deadly weapon makes you a pussy. Your gun is like your dick, only better because you can buy a really big one instead of being stuck with what nature gave you.
One thing I learned in the Army was someone always has a bigger gun. So it’s what you do with the one you have that matters. After all, men have captured entire trenches with nothing but a pistol; while the guys with the big guns spent weeks pounding away to no satisfaction.
(I see the door but I’m not leaving until I finish this beer. Any attempts to force me will result in more punishment)
I hate when guys with big guns are pounding away but getting no satisfaction
My pragmatic side is absolutely disgusted with this - why would you gift a gun to your kid while living in an urban area? It makes no practical sense other than fueling this weird American obsession with guns.
I understand giving your teen kid a hunting rifle if you live in a rural area and go hunting sometimes, but not an AR in a city - it’s just asking for trouble.
My fourteen year has a few guns. 20 gauge single shot break barrel, .410 single shot break barrel, bolt action .22 rifle and a single action .22 revolver. (Single action revolvers are the really old school kind where you have to cock the hammer each time it shoots. It’s a damn big revolver as well, good luck concealing it.) They are used for varmint control and hunting. The revolver is great for rat shot and he has taken quite a few gophers with it. He understands what guns do and how they cause death.
We hunt, fish, camp, kayak, live on a tiny farm.
I don’t own an AR, don’t have use for one at this time. Giving a kid an AR and uncontrolled access to it in an urban environment is nucking futz. My son has access to his guns because I trust him to safely and respectfully use them. He also has been trained in their proper use since he was 7 or 8.
And what would you do if the police showed up to politely talk about your kid making school shooting threats online?
The relevant bit from the article, that they buried-
The timeline the teen’s father provided to authorities would put the gun purchase months after authorities first contacted Gray and his family to investigate school shooting threats made online.
That’s kind of the point I’m trying to make. There’s a healthy way for kids to have and use guns, but it certainly isn’t this.
America has so warped its perception of guns that they’re now some sort of male enhancement device and tied into people’s identity.
This is probably a somewhat idealized view of the past, but I would think most Americans of the past viewed guns primarily as tool instead of as a supplementary cock.
Those people have no business owning a gun. I fully support some sort of gun control. Even more than that, public healthcare including mental healthcare would go a long way towards reducing shootings like this.
If the cops showed up to talk to me about my kid making threats, I would very politely listen to them without saying much or incriminating any of us. I’d check in with his teachers, get their side. Then I’d almost certainly lock up every gun, most of the knives and get him to a shrink. If we could afford it, we’d be looking into inpatient therapy.
A big chunk of this country, for all intents and purposes, has gone permanently insane. They’re a danger to themselves and others. Doesn’t seem to be any fixing it anytime soon.
It pisses me off. I often feel like suburban wannabe tuff guys are trying to ape masculinity and they end up cosplaying as me. Do they feel like real big boys now?
I support these use cases, but I still disagree with open access. He shows his untrained friend, and now you’re liable for their death. He becomes clinically depressed and now he has a method for suicide. It’s just not worth the risk.
Why? He’s not as big into hunting like me, but will kill varmints when necessary and has done so when I’m not home so his mother didn’t have to.
I used to go hunting alone when I was his age.
He’s mentally stable, well adjusted. He views guns as tools, as do I. He also has a rolling toolbox with $1k of tools in it. He put in so much work this summer that a full toolbox was part of how I rewarded him.
Now, if there was depression, threats, suicidal tendencies, etc.: totally different situation.
Guns aren’t a masculinity fetish for us, they’re just another tool. Guns and other power tools are fun to play with as long as you understand the safety and proper use of them.
I’m in the market for a chainsaw, I’ll be getting chaps to go with it. He’ll also be trained in the use of the chainsaw and have open access to it.
I’ve also been teaching him how to drive and he can’t get a permit until he’s 16.
He uses dangerous tools regularly. More and more, he does so without my direct supervision.
I grew up in rural WV. We were given a Ruger 10/22 for our 10th birthday. Now it was in my father’s locked gun cabinet and I couldn’t just go get it when I wanted but it was mine. We’d take it plinking in the woods on the weekend sometimes. Well when he wasn’t shit faced drunk but I digress …
This situation you describe is something I don’t see a major problem with. It being yours but under your parents control and secured away unless he’s present with you sounds like a responsible approach that seems uncommon these days.
I dont have any children, but I still think it’s the right and responsible thing to lock up my firearms.
Well I grew up not shooting up a school so it seems to have worked. It also helps I don’t have any mental health problems. Well unless you ask my wife.
But seriously guns are just tools. Granted tools meant to kill things but still just tools. My father also taught me to respect regular tools. You can seriously hurt someone with a circular saw it’s just much harder to do from a distance.
I don’t think you should let a toddler play with a hammer. You wait until they are old enough and strong enough and wise enough to weild it properly. Then you teach them how to use it for its purpose. And if it looks like they are going to have a psychotic break and murder people with it you take away the damn hammer and make sure they can’t just go get another hammer 🙄… it’s not really that hard.
Why would you gift a gun to a kid even for hunting?
There’s really no reason in any scenario
You’d “give” the gun to the kid in the sense that it’s “their” gun to take hunting (and maintain, clean, etc), but it stays locked up in your safe, to which the kid has no access. But, in that case it would be a hunting rifle meant for beginners, maybe chambered in .22 or something like that. Usually, it’s something that gets passed down from parents/grandparents if hunting runs in the family. Definitely not the “school-shooter-9000” that these people got for their kid.
Some people see gun usage as a sporting activity. Go out and hit some targets, see how fast, or precise you can be, it’s also fun to just blast things. I could easily see a family that shoots together gifting their child an AR pattern rifle after they got used to shooting mom’s or dad’s firearm. It gives them their own platform to customize and practice on, akin to a musical instrument.
That being said, I think it should take a lot more trust, awareness, and scrutiny from the parents, which was clearly missing in this case. This is more like giving the keys for your Dodge Pickup to your teen when they are absolutely hammered.
If that’s how you want to read in to it, sure. It less about a gun being as safe, or as socially acceptable, and more about the psychological satisfaction granted from striving to perfect your usage of a tool. I could make the same comparisons to carpentry, archery, cooking, go-karting, golfing…etc.
It makes no practical sense other than fueling this weird American obsession with guns.
i still don’t understand this rhetoric, it’s a gun, it’s just a thing. It’s not a fucking gay person in the 1950s they aren’t going to give you aids like it’s the 80s.
i mean sure guns are a little weird but like, so is collecting swords?
You also have a right to collect Nazi memorabilia if you want, doesn’t mean I’m not going to call you weird.
Do you think there might be anything different between collecting swords and collecting guns? Do you think most people who live in urban environments have a need for a semi-auto military style, magazine-fed rifle? What about multiple of them? What about machine guns?
everything is weird at the end of the day if you think about it hard enough.
Do you think there might be anything different between collecting swords and collecting guns? Do you think most people who live in urban environments have a need for a semi-auto military style, magazine-fed rifle? What about multiple of them? What about machine guns?
i mean, you don’t need either of them. You don’t need anything really, this entire platform lemmy is useless if you think about it reductively enough.
i don’t see anything inherently wrong with people owning guns, if people are allowed to own cars, knives, power tools, chemicals, gasoline, etc. I could keep going.
I mean i own a little finger puppet racoon that sits on my desk near my computer, his name is badge. That’s pretty fucking weird.
as for machine guns, those are highly impractical, and very expensive. So i doubt those are ever going to be a significant problem.
Not in Canada. It’s actually possible to hunt using rifles that aren’t modled on weapons of war.
I mean, a 10/22 ruger isn’t a huge gun and can be a Woodstock or modeled as an AR15 but it is the same gun with the same power, same magazine size, same trigger, fire distance, velocity, etc.
I guess what I’m saying is that a rifle is a rifle. An AR15 does not shoot faster or more than a different gun.
