How unusual is it to charge parents in shootings?
Didn’t act despite signs
on the shooting or the charges.
Here’s a look at the issues facing the parents: plinary record, was told to get counseling but was allowed to stay in school. His backpack was not checked for a weapon, Mcdonald said.
Primus said authorities must show gross negligence by the parents and causation, or the act of causing something.
“The prosecutor is going to need facts to support the argument that these parents really knew there was a risk that their son would take a gun and shoot people dead,” she said. “Not just that their son was troubled in some way. This is a homicide charge that carries years in prison. This is not a small charge.”
In 2000, a Flint-area man pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter after a 6-year-old boy who was living with him found a gun in a shoebox and killed a classmate.
Why aren’t parents charged more often?
home of a parent or close relative in 76% of school attacks where firearms were used. In about half, the firearms were easily accessible.
But laws aimed at restricting gun access are not always enforced and vary in strength, experts say.
“Our laws haven’t really adapted to the reality of school shootings, and the closest we have are these child access prevention laws,” said Kris Brown, president of the Brady gun control advocacy group
In 2020, the mother of an Indiana teen was placed on probation for failing to remove guns from her home after her mentally ill son threatened to kill students. He fired shots inside his school in 2018. No one was injured but the boy killed himself.
In Washington state, the father of a boy who killed four students at a high school in 2014 was convicted of illegally possessing firearms. He was not charged for the shooting, although one of his guns was used.