10mo ago

Colin Gray, father of Georgia school shooting suspect Colt Gray, formally charged in connection with son's shooting spree

6abc.com Georgia school shooting latest: 14-year-old suspect, father appear in court on charges

The 14-year-old boy accused of fatally shooting four people at a Georgia high school made his first court appearance Friday.

Colin Gray, was charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children, the GBI (Georgia Bureau of Investigation) said.

20 comments

According to CNN the Christmas gift timeline is significant because this was after police had talked to the parents about the kid making online threats to do a school shooting.
They knew and they gave him a gun anyway.
- Not that the police helped the matter in any way. They excused the guns in the house and told the dad to "keep him away from the video games" like we're back in the damn 80s again.
  
  They didn't but the parents still have a duty.
  
  Because never listen to a cop, that advice sure as shit isn't helping now that the DA has come knocking
- Just to be clear, it’s only the father. The mother didn’t have custody is my understanding.
- Devil's advocate here and please inform me if I'm missing something here, but:
  If agents visited and could do literally nothing about the kid saying these things, then walked away.
  And no actual legal restrictions were placed upon the father or son...
  ... How is the father culpable for that which even police could not address?
  Doesn't this mean the law needs changed so that preventative action can occur instead of looking for a scapegoat?
  That is: If this was such a red flag on hindsight, then why the fuck wasn't it a red flag then and why aren't the police who ultimately did nothing being arrested for homicide?
  Speaking as someone who has no problem advocating for a national firearm ban along other measures, this feels like scapegoating without actually addressing the core reasons why this shit happens in the first place.
  
  It was the reddest of flags. Georgia does not have laws that allow them to take action for red flags.
  The kid didn't even beat his wife, which is usually the accepted standard if they did have red flag laws.
  
  To play along: this is what a red flag law is for, in theory.
  Stuff is happening, the guns should be removed until stuff isn't happening
  
  There's enough handcuffs to go around. The US isn't in short supply there.

I agree with holding the parents accountable. If your dog mauls someone you are liable. The son should also be charged, but he didn't wind up like this in a vacuum.
- And at 14 years old, he sure as shit did not stroll into his local gun store and fill out that form 4473. That was his dad's gun, which his dad provided unsupervised access to.
  Which was not a smart fucking move.
  
  Can we go out on a limb and say the father is even being sort of abusive here? I mean... Here's a very dangerous thing that can cause people to die. Go have fun.
  I get it isn't that simple but... I have a kid. I also have guns. My kid wants to learn to shoot one day.
  There's a big heavy door, and a lock. No way for my kid to access them without me. No access.
  There's criticizing another's parenting choices, and then there's abuse and I am starting to think this is abusive.

Investigators believe that Gray received the AR-style gun used in the shooting as a Christmas present from his father, according to sources.