GA Man Who Gifted Gun to Son Found Guilty of 2nd Degree Murder

Beth Gallagher

Beth Gallagher

Well-known member
"A Georgia man who gave his teenage son the gun he's accused of using to kill two students and two teachers at a high school was convicted Tuesday of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter.

Jurors took less than two hours to find Colin Gray guilty of all charges in the September 2024 shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, northeast of Atlanta. Gray now joins a growing number of parents across the country being held responsible in court after their children were accused in shootings. " https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/jurors-begin-deliberating-trial-father-143824546.html

I'm not sure I know how to feel about this. My father gave me a 22 bolt action rifle when I was 12 but somehow I never thought of killing people with it. It's certainly a different world now.

What do you think of this verdict? (Read the referenced article for more information on the case. Apparently there were signs that the boy had deteriorating mental health and lived with his father.)
 
Like you, I don't what to think about it. I never received a gun as a gift, but I inherited a few and gave each of our kids a rifle. Our kids hunted and did predator protection on the "farm" here. All our kids were and are stable individuals who would never shoot anyone other than defending themselves or others close to them. Anyone who has "deteriorating mental health" should be looked at carefully before being allowed to possess a firearm. It appears from the mother's reaction that there were questions as to the son's stability. We had a boy as a guest here once who had severe mental issues. He was only 7 years old and was found by his parents trying to break into their gun safe with a crowbar. When questioned, he told them "I am obsessed with guns". He got into a lot of trouble with the law later in life, but as far as I know, he never shot anyone. His sister, who was older and appeared stable ended up pregnant at 16 and she also had trouble with criminal behavior, so perhaps parenting had something to do with it. She also had drug issues.

Schools are gun-free zones, so nobody can be shot there since there are no guns.
 
Although, as presented, giving that particular kid a gun seems like a stupid thing to do, at the same time, I can understand that someone who hunts and has been around guns might feel like taking his son shooting or hunting might be a bonding activity. Mostly, I don't like that it opens the door to making parents criminals for their children's actions. While doing everything possible to reduce parental rights in their children's decisions, they hold the parents responsible. I especially hate that, in this specific case, the schools were given immunity for their part. No, I don't like it. I had guns when I was twelve, and, more than sixty years later, I still haven't killed anyone with them.
 
Parents have responsibilities and so do schools. I had no guns growing up but then they made up for it:) Winder, GA used to be a nice sleepy hole in the woods.
Does anyone have the age of the shooter please?
 
Marie Miller said:
Parents have responsibilities and so do schools. I had no guns growing up but then they made up for it:) Winder, GA used to be a nice sleepy hole in the woods.
Does anyone have the age of the shooter please?
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According to the article, he was 14 at the time of the shooting. He is 16 now.
 
That is a hard one to understand, for sure. I also had a bolt action .22 rifle at around 12 given to me by my Grandpa Bailey. Our small Idaho town had a shooting range and some of the guys who had been in the military helped teach us junior high kids how to shoot and take care of our rifle. I really enjoyed it, and was actually a pretty good shot back when i could still see better.

Later, I went hunting along with my dad, and shot grouse with the .22, and I enjoyed that, too. All of the kids who lived outside of town and their family had a pickup , drove it to school by the time we were in high school, and there was almost always 1-2 hunting rifles in the back window carrier of the trucks.
None of us ever even considered shooting someone at school or anywhere else. I am pretty sure we all had about the same safety lessons from our parents as I had from mine, before we were ever allowed to touch any kind of weapons.

When my kids were old enough, I used my same little rifle to teach them to shoot. If I had thought that there was a possibility that one of them might shoot another human being, I for sure would never have showed them how to use the rifle, but if there is a rifle in the home and the child just took it, then I think that the parents are not responsible for that. If he had shown behavior that looked like he might hurt other people, then they should have taken precautions to keep any weapons put away in a safe place, but most parents are not likely to be thinking that their child is about to go and shoot up a school.
 
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Growing up, we always had guns easy to access as is sometimes necessary on a ranch. During my younger adult years, I always had my guns in a rack. I kept the ammo separate in an easy to get to place, but only known to me. I never had any problem with visiting friends or their kids, never.

Today, I don't let anyone know if I have guns or not. Too much break down of common sense and value on life. Kids aren't allowed to grow up with just kid stuff, they are forced into an adult world with things we as kids didn't know about until we were at least teens.

Should the parents of a killer be held responsible? It all depends on the circumstances and that is why we have juries. I couldn't decide without hearing all the evidence. My personal opinion is that parents should keep guns locked up unless they live in a situation where they have been taught responsibility and gun safety and use, that comes natural. I.E., ranches and rural living where guns are tools.
 
Yvonne makes a good point about rural high school kids back in the our HS days. It wasn't uncommon, especially in hunting season, to see country kids driving pickups with rifles in the rack over the back seat, to school. Many times in small schools, no one even locked their pickup. The year I spent in Texas with relatives and went to a small rural high school, I drove an old Chevy pickup with a gun rack in it. Uncle Jack was a retired ballistics engineer, turned cattle rancher, and still made custom rifles for a hobby and second income.

He insisted that I always have one of his latest creations in my pickup rack so all the boys could see it. He insisted I let them handle it and check it out. He was known for using the old German Mauser 98 bolt action and attaching modern custom barrels. My favorite was the 243 Rockchucker. It had a flat trajectory. I was popular with the boys only because they wanted to see what rifle my uncle had in my pickup rack. "What a beauty, they would say," but they weren't talking about me. I won several dollars off the boys, betting that I couldn't hit a certain distant target, dead center with that rifle.

Another thing about those days and respect, was boys knew it was best to ask Uncle Jack if it was ok to ask me out for a date. I remember his reply, "Shore can, and you can handle my rifes all you want, but if you lay one hand on Faye in an inappropriate manner, your mama won't like the call she gets from the hospital and Aunt Liz will be unhappy with having to bail me out of jail. Unhappiness all the way around, if you get my drift, son. " :ROFLMAO:

I think the bottom line of this discussion is respect and common sense, two things lacking today in families and especially the schools.

My Great Uncle Jack was one of the original advocates of Guns, God, and Country. His father was a horseback preacher. It was said he could draw with lightening speed, either the Bible or his six gun. No one ever heard of guys like Don Lemon causing a disturbance in his church. :ROFLMAO:
 
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Marie Miller said:
Parents have responsibilities and so do schools. I had no guns growing up but then they made up for it:) Winder, GA used to be a nice sleepy hole in the woods.
Does anyone have the age of the shooter please?
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I think it is a shame he will serve so much time for being so foolish.
Marie I'm from Atlanta and Stone mountain Georgia.
Guns were always around, mama had one beside her at all times while at Stone Mountain, sometimes men would sneak in to fish, also prison farm was close by so now and then we'd walk up on some escapes in our woods.
Mama was a great shot always practicing with her 38 S.W. She was known as the ,' pistal packing blonde from Redan Road.
 
Ken Anderson said:
Although, as presented, giving that particular kid a gun seems like a stupid thing to do, at the same time, I can understand that someone who hunts and has been around guns might feel like taking his son shooting or hunting might be a bonding activity. Mostly, I don't like that it opens the door to making parents criminals for their children's actions. While doing everything possible to reduce parental rights in their children's decisions, they hold the parents responsible. I especially hate that, in this specific case, the schools were given immunity for their part. No, I don't like it. I had guns when I was twelve, and, more than sixty years later, I still haven't killed anyone with them.
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You make a very good point about will such decisions just be one more advance in taking away parental rights. I think we have to look at the individual circumstances in each case. In this case the son was showing signs of mental illness. The father should have had all guns locked up and under his control.

I think we can all agree that what was in our times, is no longer the case.

While I agree Ken, that this case certainly does question parental rights and how far do we take parental responsibility, a line has to be drawn somewhere. We all wish it was different, but it ain't so. The courts and the citizens on the juries, would be amiss, to not put some responsibility on the father in this case. There is no reason that this teenagers needed unsupervised access to a firearm, even if he had been mentally stable.

I hope the courts make sure that their judgements, doesn't open the door for taking away parental rights. I am against any law being passed that requires parents to do common sense things. like lock up guns. The best way in a democracy, is to punish offenders severely so other parents use common sense. You cannot legislate common sense, but we should punish those that don't when their negligence leads to others being killed.

I see this verdict as a message to parents, to pay attention to their children, and use common sense. If your kid shows signs of mental illness, make sure guns are locked up and get your child some help. What is helping is much of the liberal crap forced on our public school kids by past administrations, is now being reversed. Maybe too late, who knows.
 
Marie Mallory said:
I think it is a shame he will serve so much time for being so foolish.
Marie I'm from Atlanta and Stone mountain Georgia.
Guns were always around, mama had one beside her at all times while at Stone Mountain, sometimes men would sneak in to fish, also prison farm was close by so now and then we'd walk up on some escapes in our woods.
Mama was a great shot always practicing with her 38 S.W. She was known as the ,' pistal packing blonde from Redan Road.
Click to expand...
Sounds like your mother had her act together:)
 
I have a new opinion on this case after reading some of the facts.

Prosecutors showed the jury that Colt had a shrine to the Parkland shooter in his bedroom, that the FBI had investigated him over a school shooting threat in 2023. His father was well aware of this, but still bought him an AR-15.

Any parent that knows their child is worshipping school shooters, made a school shooting threat, and then buys them any firearm, let alone an AR-15, should be found guilty of murder, if their child commits murder. Any parent that doesn't make sure their child, showing signs of mental illness, is kept away from guns, and doesn't get them help for their mental illness, isn't a good parent.

I would question that any government agency or law enforcement agency, has the right to force such a parent to be responsible, but once a crime is committed by that child because of parental intentional negligence, then the law should hold the parent responsible as they have in this case. I feel justice was served and a message has been sent out.

I feel that a parent that has a child that leaves their place drunk and they couldn't stop them, then they should call the cops and report it. They may be saving lives by doing this. If they fail to report it and their child kills someone, then I think the parents should be charged just like they did it.

If more parents practiced tough love, then lives could be saved.
 
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