10mo ago

Father of Georgia school shooting suspect told investigators he purchased gun as holiday present for son, sources say

www.cnn.com

Father of Georgia school shooting suspect told investigators he purchased gun as holiday present for son, sources say | CNN

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.

News @lemmy.world

shoulderoforion @fedia.io

10mo ago

The father of the Georgia school shooting suspect has been arrested and charged, authorities say | CNN

www.cnn.com /2024/09/05/us/winder-georgia-shooting-apalachee-high-school/index.html

206 comments

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.
- "Who could have seen this coming?" -the father probably
  
  I bet physical and/or verbal abuse was abundant in that household, probably spousal abuse as well, up to and including sexual and financial.
- 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?
  
  I'd be satisfied if it stopped dumb fucks from buying guns for their dumb fuck kids that already threatened to shoot their classmates.
  Daddy is an accessory here. I'm glad he's being charged.
  
  Nah, the kids are rarely intentional when you're that stupid.
  
  Nope. But it might make em think twice before taking their under-6-yr old kids to a bar and shove an iPad in their face while mommy and/or daddy gets sloshed.
  
  It'll stop him from reproducing again
  
  No. They aren't thinking the potential long term cost of their own actions, let alone the knock-on effects caused by the actions of their unexamined actions.
- 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
- I absolutely don't see an accessory charge at minimum as being too far of a stretch either. Lock both of them up.
Call me crazy, but I don’t think children should own guns.
- But but the real issue is them being exposed to drag queens!
  
  imagine how much worse this would be if the child in question went to drag time story hour instead of being given a killing machine! /s
  
  Drag queen story times are of the devil! ( The Christians say while attending church where someone dresses up and reads stories).
- he gifted him a gun to protect him from school shooting. that's right-wing logic
  
  I was gonna write a witty but bleak reply to this but I’m not gonna. Have a nice day
  
  Did he think the kid was going to carry it around the school all day every day? Did he know that school shootings tend to happen ... in schools?
- Call me crazy, but I don't think civilians should own AR-15s
  
  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.
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
- 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.
- Why these people giving weapons to their kids after the sheriff first contacted you to investigate school shooting threats your kid made online,
- 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.
- Why giving waepons to a child at all?
- People like this put the "toxic" in toxic masculinity. "Oh, my son is having a hard time maturing and posted school shooting threats online? He just needs to grow up, firearms will help with that!"
  Can we please get gun reform yet!? This doesn't happen in other countries...
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)
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.
- After police talked to you about the kid having made online threats to do a school shooting.
  He knew. And he gave him a gun anyways. I hope he gets convicted and sued into the ground.
- 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.
  
  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.
- 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.
- 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.
  
  Comparing a gun to a musical instrument is peak American lmao
- 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?
- Not in Canada. It's actually possible to hunt using rifles that aren't modled on weapons of war.
After they had been contacted by investigators over concerns the kid wanted to do a school shooting.
This is why red flag laws need to be a thing.
The buried lede-
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.
- Sounds like accessory to murder to me.
  
  Funny that, Colin Gray, father of Colt (the shooter) has been officially charged
  
  Oh absolutely. Throw that fucker in jail. He's more responsible than the kid.
- Never buy your adolescents guns parents, as a matter of fact, don't let them have guns where you can't see them
  
  There are places where training your kids in an age appropriate manner is the right thing to do. But of course it's the parent's responsibility to do that correctly, supervise use, and remove any firearms if there are problems.
Welp, send the man to jail for aiding and abetting murder.
- He has, in fact, been arrested.
  
  Fuck yeah!
What’s wrong with legos. Nobody is ever killed with legos.
- I mean, they are basically microplastic. Having said that, my kid loves em and I still buy them for him.
  
  Lego has shifted (or is trying to shift) towards a more plant based, biodegradable plastic. They have to put a big effort because their entire product line is based on a material that has (rightfully so) negative connotations.
- I'd rather die than step on one, though.
  
  I have wanted to amputate my foot after stepping on one.
I was gifted a shotgun at 15. It was a double barrel break action shotgun from my grandmother.
I kept it in a gun rack my grandfather left me hanging on my wall. I never had issues, but if one of my friends wanted access, it probably could have been stolen.
Lock up your guns.
it's odd that they used "holiday present" in the headline, but the article says-
One source told CNN the AR-15-style rifle was purchased at a local gun store as a Christmas present.
it's like they didn't want christmas in the same headline as the mass shooting or something?
- For most news publications, the article and the headline are written by different people.
Americans need to analyze their views surrounding guns. And take their time. It's mind-blowing to try to make them understand guns are risky, regardless of handling, trigger discipline, or any other bullshit they tell themselves. The mere existence of guns is dangerous, the bigger the number of guns out there is the amount of accidents, shootings and massacres waiting to happen out there.
Edit: yeah, pushed some buttons here. Good.
- Who have you been talking to? 80 percent of Americans want gun control laws like a universal background check. For a general question of more strict laws support is at 60 percent.
  Here's a former Supreme Court judge saying the conservatives have hijacked the second amendment and we in response we should repeal it.
  Washington Post reports that around that same period 21 percent of Americans were ready to repeal it.
  We're out here, and we're pissed. We just get angrier every time time we see a headline and every time it turns out that common sense gun laws were subverted by people in authority.
  
  People in authority thanks to gerrymandering. The republikkklan party is a fucking joke. If you support them, you're a fucking clown and you're responsible for this kind of shit. I have been hoping for years they'd see the light and realize they're getting played, but here we are.
  VOTE!! If you can, volunteer to give rides to those that couldn't vote without it.
  
  Here’s a former Supreme Court judge saying the conservatives have hijacked the second amendment and we in response we should repeal it.
  based. The ruling of the second is unconstitutional anyway.
  For all the talk over roe v wade being "unconstitutional and the wong way to do it" the conservatives sure seem to like the second amendment.
- It's funny (in a sad way) how people who frequent shooting ranges - which usually have very strict rules regarding firearm discipline and handling safety - are fine with allowing every schmuck in the world to walk around packing. If that shit is so important on a gun range, why would it be unimportant out in the world?
- Let me analyze this for a minute... Nope not giving up my rights because criminals can't control themselves from committing crimes.
- the mere existence of literally anything is dangerous. Guns are just uniquely primed to kill humans.
  Knives scare me more than guns, just based of the pure frequency of how often people use them.
- Comment deleted when I realised I was responding to lemmy.ml user.
  The comment about being a cruel turd, that one’s still accurate so it stands 💅
- Take your meds.
- Sorry remind me when if ever you’ve walked through a shopping center and needed to know where your safest exits were? Where you’d hide with the thickest cover? Thought about which stairwell might be safest?
  Not just a shopping center. How about your workplace. Or church. Or which corner of your house you’d survive longest in.
  Thought about all those things, have you? Wow congrats, aren’t you so ahead of the game.
  Talking as if all my friends and family haven’t ever once given a thought to guns. What a lazy, facile, mindlessly cruel claim to make.
  What a bad person with an ugly heart you are to make it.
  Fuck you.
  
  You ever been anywhere outside America or even your mom's basement?
If you can Ban someone from buying their CHILD a GUN after that Child makes THREATS TO SHOOT UP HIS SCHOOL that's SOCIALISM! SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED!
- Child soldiers are an essential bulwark against government tyranny!
AR-15-style
Sociopaths raising a sociopath. We have to stop the race to the bottom, triggering people isn't cool, it has serious repercussions, as noted in presidential races, even.
- Anyone got a list of AR-15 style guns? I have no idea why they can't just say what it is and leave all the AR-15 shit out. I mean I know why they do it, it just sucks.
  
  Yea for liberal news every gun is an AR-15 and for conservative news every brown person is MS-13. Both are really dumb.
Is he named Colt after the gun?
- Maybe the beer.
  
  Don’t bring Billy Dee into this
My father also bought me a gun as a birthday present as a teenager, and looking back it was wholly inappropriate and dangerous. Granted, I never had thoughts of killing people.
- Were you always in possession of it, or did he keep it properly stored until he took you shooting?
  
  I had a shotgun and .223 in the back window gun rack of my truck through middle school and high school (started driving at 14 with a school permit) with shells and rounds in the glove box. Nothing was ever locked where I grew up either; homes, vehicles, businesses.
  Granted I grew up in a town with under 1,000 people and the closest ‘city’ to us was an hour away and had a population of 25k.
  That was forty years ago and I feel a lot differently about things and the world is a different place but when I grew up more students and teachers had guns in their vehicles at school than didn’t. Everyone hunted, I pulled off and shot a coyote in pack that was stalking around one of my teachers herd of cows on the way to school one winter. I took the coyote into class and gave it to him since I had him first period.
  
  I was in possession of it, but he kept the ammo "hidden" on top of a cabinet.
- I was also gifted firearms as a child. They were kept inside a locked safe that I didn't have the combination for when not being used for hunting or target shooting. As much as I enjoy guns, hunting, and shooting, I can also see that responsibility goes beyond "it's guaranteed in the constitution" or equivalent bullshit.
- A teenager's brain chemistry is rapidly changing due to hormones, etc. I remember a couple days when I was about 14 where I became massively depressed for no apparent reason, just likely a temporary chemical imbalance in my brain. If I had a gun, who knows what I would have done.
Guns kill people. Wow it's so complicated. Americans need to examine their culture
- We don’t all think the same on this issue. I for one thing that we’re well past addressing this.
- trash deserves to be thrown out :)
Did they really name him after a gun too?
- Many guns are named after people who distributed, produced, or designed them.
  So he is a guy named after a gun that was named after a guy.
I don't understand why the father would just confess like that, but I suppose I shouldn't expect good judgement from him.
- I'm sure he believes in the rule of law, so told the truth. I'm also sure he believes that nothing will happen to him because he told the nice police officers the truth, so the nice police officers will just charge his way-too-young-to-own-a-gun son as an adult and Dad will just go on living his life as he always has.
  Critical thinking skills are not strong in men like him.
  
  Also he is white.
- The kid was taken alive, so it's likely he'll just tell them at some point.
It's the perfect hunting rifle for when a herd of deer stampedes.
- Lost a lot of good men out there in the deer stampede hunts
- Or 30-50 feral hogs.
- I'm waiting for someone to explain to me how an automatic gun/rifle is needed for hunting animals/deer.
  
  AR-15's are not automatic. Also, automatic firearms are already illegal for the majority of civilians.
It's nice when kids enjoy their birthday presents.
And there was another shooting today with 1 dead. 2 shootings in one week. More thoughts and prayers of course. 🙄
Mass shooting murderer children literally named after guns now...
We're kind of running out of space here. Next "breaking news" story on CNN will be,
"A sentient gun/child hybrid in Arkansas, named Hollowpoint Reginald Babykiller, just massacred an entire classroom of other gun children using his arms, which are also guns."
[News anchor turns and shoots all the talking heads on discussion panel]
"To our next story, the inexplicable growing labor shortage in factories built with child sized equipment continues to grow..."
the addendum "sources say" is so unnecessary, how else would you know that?
- Until it's confirmed as totally factual they have to report it as hearsay. Otherwise they open themselves up to libel charges if it proves untrue.
  One a sinister note, it's the same reason FOX commentators will say "some people are saying [insert racist/sexist lie about some Democrat]" because then they aren't the ones saying it, they're just reporting on what "some people" have said.
- Well the "sources say" implicates that they actually don't know. They've just heard someone say it. So it's definitely necessary.
- conspiracy, palm reading, an opinion. There could be a variety of things.
  But it'd be nice if they at least said what it was coming from.
Welcome to America..
Sorry, but question that’s unrelated to the story specifics:
The classroom doors lock automatically, and near the end of class, the suspect knocked on the door to try to come back in, Lyela said.
Another student went to open the door but apparently saw the gun and refused to let him in, Lyela said.
Instead, the shooter turned to a nearby classroom and opened fire, “and you hear about 10 to 15 rounds back-to-back,” Lyela said.
“I heard gunshots outside my classroom and people screaming, people begging not to get shot,” said 14-year-old student Macey Right.
Did the other rooms not lock, or was he let in because the person who opened the door in the other classroom not notice the gun?
- An earlier story said the door was propped open, as if for airflow or something.
Charge him for 4 murders 1st degree
Perhaps the father only intended his son to use his AR-15 to kill animals for fun, which is totally acceptable behaviour for any budding young psycopath.
The kid's name is Colt and he gave him an AR instead of a Colt? Wtf
- Colt makes AR15s. They held the original patent until it expired in the '70s, and then everyone else started making it too.
  
  ok but...
  Give colt a colt by colt

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