Colin Gray, whose 14-year-old son is charged with murdering two students and two teachers at a Georgia high school last month, himself faces 29 criminal charges that could send him to prison for the rest of his life. The case is part of a troubling trend in which prosecutors seek to spread the blame for school shootings by criminalizing parental failures.
Judging from the allegations against him, Gray is no one’s idea of a model parent. Prosecutors say he failed to securely store the rifle used in the Sept. 4 attack at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, a weapon he bought his son, Colt, as a Christmas present.
Gray allegedly knew Colt was deeply troubled but failed to get him the help he needed. He allegedly disregarded signs that Colt was prone to violence, including a photograph of a school shooter the teenager had on his bedroom wall.
If the Apalachee High School shooting had involved a handgun, these claims might have supported a felony charge under a Georgia statute that applies to a parent who “furnish(es) a pistol or revolver to a minor” when he “is aware of a substantial risk” that the minor “will use a pistol or revolver to commit a felony offense.”
But because that law does not cover rifles, prosecutors are relying on other statutes that are less obviously applicable.
An indictment unveiled last week charges Gray with two counts of second-degree murder, each of which is punishable by 10 to 30 years in prison.
Click the link to read the whole article: Georgia Case Treats Inattentive Parent as a Murderer
1 comment:
The parents of that very troubled kid are responsible for the deaths that took place, at least to some degree. It goes way beyond "inattention".
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