Caffeinated Politics

There’s a moment in every American school shooting case when the country briefly pretends to be shocked. We clutch pearls, lower flags, and issue statements about another unthinkable tragedy, as though the tragedy weren’t entirely predictable. But this week in Georgia, the aftermath took a turn that should force us to confront the real problem. A father was sentenced to 15 years not because he fired a gun, but because he handed one to a disturbed child in a country that treats firearms–literally– like stocking stuffers.

For twenty years, I have strongly advocated gun control measures, such as requiring that parents and guardians of underage children be held accountable when giving guns or providing guns to young people who then use the weapons in deadly rampages. I was advocating such legal moves far before they started happening in courts. We can all be glad that the legal system has advanced to this point in some states, and I can’t help but think this trend will continue advancing across the nation.

Today, this reasoned legal thinking continued in Georgia in a case Caffeinated Politics has been following.

Colin Gray stood in a courtroom wearing a striped prison uniform, reportedly breathing heavily as Judge Nicholas Primm explained why a man who didn’t pull a trigger was still going to prison for fifteen years. Gray’s son, Colt, then 14, walked into Apalachee High School on September 4, 2024, and killed two students and two teachers, injuring seven more. Gray didn’t plan the attack. But he did buy his son an AR‑15‑style rifle as a Christmas gift — despite warnings the boy was a danger to others — and left it unsecured.

Colin Gray must have been so happy with himself when his plumbing was able to make a baby, but when it came time to be a responsible parent, he was unable to do so. What happened was not bad luck. No, what happened was criminal negligence by Colin Gray. And the jury agreed. Gray is now the first parent of a school shooter ever convicted of murder.

I applaud the reasoning and the prosecution of this case to the maximum penalty allowed.

Let me back up from this specific case and state the obvious. This is what happens when a country refuses to regulate guns. Prosecutors take the laws on the books and work with them, and judges begin stitching accountability into law and order. And parents who treat firearms like toys suddenly discover that the law has run out of patience.

Madison, Wisconsin, has a case that is brewing along similar lines.

Society watches these cases because a mentally disturbed teenager had access to a weapon designed to kill efficiently. It matters that four people are dead because a gun was easier to obtain than mental‑health care. It matters that we’ve built a culture where gifting a child an AR‑15 is considered normal in some households. Sickness abounds in the gun culture.

Gray’s case, as noted above, is a part of a growing legal trend. Michigan already tested the waters with James and Jennifer Crumbley, whose 15‑year‑old son killed four students at Oxford High School in 2021. They were convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to 10 to 15 years. Their son will spend his life in prison. The Crumbleys were the warning shot. Gray is the escalation.

As I conclude this column, I want to stress again that what happened today is the cost of our national gun worship. We have built a culture where firearms are treated as symbols of freedom, masculinity, and patriotism. (I argue men buy big guns when nature only issued them the travel‑size model as teenagers in puberty.) We have allowed the gun industry to market military‑style weapons to civilians. We have normalized unsecured guns in homes with troubled teenagers. And then we act surprised when the predictable happens.

Gray was escorted out of the courtroom in shackles. His son was sentenced to life in prison this week. But let us not forget the four dead victims and those truly suffering families who will never be whole again. And the rest of us who are forced to live in a country where school shootings are so routine that the justice system is now prosecuting parents because lawmakers refuse to do their jobs.

So, yes, I heartily applaud the legal outcome in Georgia.