How can a parent ever believe that their child would become a mass murderer? Parents should not be held accountable for these murders. Whether these kids came from dysfunctional or poor families or show signs of early mental illness, most don’t become murderers.
One of the ways the United States has begun to manage gun control with minors, who have committed mass murder is to arbitrarily hold parents responsible.
America is a gun-loving nation, invested in the gun culture. Although attempts at restrictions on weapons have been demanded by various politicians and civilians there have been few successful changes.
Why are some guns still not illegal in the U.S.?
In the United Kingdom, after the 1996 mass killing at Dunblane Primary School in Scotland where 43-year-old Thomas Hamilton killed 16 pupils and one teacher and injured 15 others, the Labour government enacted gun control sanctions and banned assault weapons in 1997.
Guns are not banned in any European country, but they are heavily regulated.
What has recently occurred in the United States?
Ethan Crumbley was sentenced to life in prison without parole for gunning down four classmates and wounding six others and a teacher at Michigan’s Oxford High School in 2021.
Jennifer and James Crumbley, his first parents, were convicted in Ethan’s mass school shooting and have been sentenced to 10-15 years in prison.
County Judge Cheryl Matthews said, “These convictions are not about poor parenting. These convictions confirm repeated acts, or lack of acts, that could have halted an oncoming runaway train.”
The presumption is that parents maintained the knowledge that their child possesed the capacity to carry out such a heinous crime.
Children say many frightening things. Mental health issues in teenagers does not equate to mass murder. If the profilers are not able to formulate characteristics of mass murderers definitively, how can parents be expected to do the same?
It seems there is a recent belief that holding parents responsible will decrease mass killings.
James Crumbley bought his son a Sig Sauer handgun. Authorities say that James and Jennifer ignored signs that their son was in distress and needed mental health help. They further claim that his mother ignored Ethan’s complaints that he was hearing voices of demons. Of note, there were no red flag laws in Michigan in 2021 (they were later enacted in 2024). A red flag law is an Extreme Risk Protection Order that allows law enforcement to seize weapons if reports have been made that a person is a danger to themselves or others.
Additionally, although an individual must be 18 years old to purchase a gun in Michigan, Michigan still maintained an open carry law policy, meaning someone at that time could walk into a school with a gun. The laws lacked clarity.
A month ago, 14-year-old Colt Gray allegedly killed two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia.
Colin Gray, his father, has been charged as an accessory—accused of improperly giving his son access to the AR-15-type rifle police say he used to attack the school.
In fact, Georgia has some of the weakest gun laws in the country. Georgia lawmakers passed a law in 2017 requiring college and universities to allow guns on campus. There is another law that allows gun owners to carry concealed handguns in public without a state license. Finally, there is no minimum age when you can legally possess a rifle or shotgun.
Many parents who live in gun carrying states purchase guns for their children to use in target ranges or hunting. An assault rifle uses an intermediate-rifle cartridge and a detachable magazine.
Robert Crimo III, 23-years-old, is accused of killing seven people and wounding dozens of others during the 2022 Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Chicago.
He allegedly fired more than 80 rounds from a Smith & Wesson M & P 15 semi-automatic rifle during the attack and disguised himself in women’s clothing to conceal distinctive face and neck tattoos and blend into the crowd as he made his escape. The trial will occur in February 2025.
Robert Crimo Jr., the alleged shooter’s father, pleaded guilty to seven misdemeanor counts of reckless conduct, rather than face felony charges.
As part of the plea deal he accepted, Crimo Jr. would be on probation for two years and serve 60 days in Lake County Jail. He will also have to perform 100 hours of community service. Prosecutors had set out to prove that he recklessly helped his son get a firearm ID card knowing his son had expressed violent and suicidal thoughts.
In all three instances, the parents are essentially accused of willful negligence. There is little question that each shooter and alleged shooter came from a dysfunctional family situation. There seemed to be mental health issues as well as bullying and a generally lonely childhood. Not the best of circumstances under which to raise a child. But how is prosecuting the parents a deterrent? Were the parents charged and found guilty under laws in place at the time of each shooting?
We have mandated reporting laws for minors. As mental health professionals, we are mandated to report to authorities if we believe a minor is being harmed, physically or sexually. Children’s Protective Services then has the jurisdiction to enter the situation and make appropriate recommendations including removing the minor from the home.
Under federal law, no one under 18 can buy firearms anywhere in the country. Furthermore, you technically can’t even gift a gun to a minor or let them borrow it. However, there is a “parental consent” exception that comes with restrictions.
Under federal law, a parent or legal guardian can purchase a gun for a minor (technically, there’s no minimum age), or let them borrow it, but the parent must give written permission for the minor to use the gun for certain limited purposes (hunting, target practice etc.).
The management of gun laws belongs to the state legislators and the Senate. Senators receive support from the National Rifle Association towards their campaigns, leaving little incentive to make laws counter to this organization’s beliefs which propagates the adage, “People kill people, not guns.”
Although there is research being conducted to attempt to develop a reliable profile of individuals who might be at greater risk for these behaviors, the findings are far from solid.
As has been consistently demonstrated, mental illness is not a predictor of violence. Additionally, poor parental decision making, and bad judgement are also not predictors of violence.
On April 20, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold walked into Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Over the course of minutes, they would kill 12 students and a teacher and wound 24 others before taking their own lives.
FBI investigators concluded that Eric Harris was likely a psychopath with narcissistic traits, unconstrained aggression, and a lack of empathy. They further posited that Dylan Klebold was an angry and depressed individual with a hateful, revenge-filled attitude toward individuals who he believed had mistreated him.
Although these descriptors are devastating, they have been derived from information garnished after the crime. It is an emotional autopsy.
In A Mother’s Reckoning, Sue Klebold, Dylan’s mother, has described living with “indescribable grief and shame of that day. How could her child, the promising young man she had loved and raised, be responsible for such horror?”
It is likely she has not been alone with these questions.
