By Prosecuting Shooter’s Parent, Georgia Advances Legal Strategy

As the US grapples with a patchwork of firearms restrictions across states, prosecutors responding to mass shootings are looking more and more to hold parents culpable when their children take lives.

The latest example is Georgia, where a school shooter’s father faces charges—including second-degree murder, manslaughter and cruelty to children—after his 14-year-old killed four people. The Thursday charging announcement of Colin Gray answered how prosecutors would respond after the Wednesday shooting by a minor at Georgia’s Apalachee High School. Police say Gray “knowingly allowed” his son to use his semi-automatic rifle.

The charges echo those brought against the parents of a Michigan school shooter, who were ultimately convicted of manslaughter earlier this year. Lawyers expect this push by prosecutors to continue when mass shootings are perpetrated by children. But the cases are tricky, involving probes into a parent’s knowledge of a child’s mental struggles, and sometimes serve as the justice system’s option of last resort in states without strict firearm regulations.

“This is the second time in the United States and the first time in Georgia,” that a parent was charged like this, Barrow County District Attorney Brad Smith said in a press conference Friday. “I would hope that prosecutors would use every tool in their arsenal to hold people accountable for crimes they commit.”

Mixed Record

The sentencing of Michiganders James and Jennifer Crumbley was the first time parents were held criminally responsible for murders committed by their child on campus. Prosecutors had to show criminal negligence or recklessness—a high level of disregard for the safety of others—when they failed to stop their son from killing four people in his Oxford, Mich., high school in 2021.

That kind of evidence was necessary, experts said, because at the time Michigan was one of roughly half of the states without a “safe storage” law. Those laws often bring criminal penalties for parents who don’t keep firearms inaccessible.

The parents’ awareness of shooter’s mental illness, and the threat he posed to classmates, convinced the jury to convict them beyond a reasonable doubt.

But jurors rejected those kinds of arguments last month in a Galveston, Texas, case seeking damages from the parents of a student who in 2018 killed 10 people in Santa Fe High School. It was a civil case, so even with a lesser burden of proof than a criminal trial the jury didn’t find the shooters’ parents liable.

“There are more of these cases because this trend of young people using their parents’ firearms to commit horrific acts are on the rise, and the justice system is using its tools to answer the call,” said Nick Suplina, senior vice president for Law and Policy at pro-regulation Everytown For Gun Safety.

Everytown for Gun Safety, which advocates gun-safety measures, is backed by Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg Law is operated by entities controlled by Michael Bloomberg.

From Cars to Guns

The firearm rights community generally opposes safe storage laws but not the prosecutions of parents of school shooters, Dillon Harris, a gun rights lawyer in Pennsylvania and Maryland said.

This new theory has roots in the negligent misuse of property. Parents can be criminally liable if they negligently entrust their car keys to an underage driver they know is dangerous or intoxicated.

“This trend doesn’t concern me more than other property, provided it’s not being abused” by prosecutors bringing inappropriate cases, Harris said.

The Georgia and Michigan cases are examples of how prosecutors could benefit from the passage of “safe storage” laws said Tim Carey, the law and policy adviser at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions. The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is supported by Michael Bloomberg.

Safe storage laws would let prosecutors bring cases even when facts aren’t so egregious they meet higher levels of criminal negligence or intent. It’s also too early to know whether prosecutions for manslaughter or murder could help mitigation against mass shootings.

“Until we see more unified national consensus from states or the federal government, the options of addressing or preventing these tragedies will vary greatly,” he said.