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

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.

2pt_perversion ,

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.

PrincessLeiasCat ,

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?

phoneymouse ,

Call me crazy, but I don’t think children should own guns.

tills13 ,

But but the real issue is them being exposed to drag queens!

HostilePasta ,

Drag queen story times are of the devil! ( The Christians say while attending church where someone dresses up and reads stories).

Fedizen ,

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

lauha ,

Call me crazy, but I don’t think civilians should own AR-15s

Today ,

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.

RagingRobot ,

Is he named Colt after the gun?

paraphrand ,

Maybe the beer.

ravhall ,

Welp, send the man to jail for aiding and abetting murder.

Stopthatgirl7 OP ,
@Stopthatgirl7@lemmy.world avatar

He has, in fact, been arrested.

ElcaineVolta ,
@ElcaineVolta@kbin.melroy.org avatar

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?

ultranaut ,

Did they really name him after a gun too?

ArbitraryValue ,

I don’t understand why the father would just confess like that, but I suppose I shouldn’t expect good judgement from him.

girlfreddy ,
@girlfreddy@lemmy.ca avatar

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.

Zaktor ,

The kid was taken alive, so it’s likely he’ll just tell them at some point.

BigMacHole ,

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!

Zaktor ,

Child soldiers are an essential bulwark against government tyranny!

TransplantedSconie ,

Well, now I know why the dad has been arrested on second degree murder and a whole slew of charges.

Kit ,

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.

Cadeillac ,
@Cadeillac@lemmy.world avatar

Were you always in possession of it, or did he keep it properly stored until he took you shooting?

Waraugh ,

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.

Cadeillac ,
@Cadeillac@lemmy.world avatar

I totally get it. My dad is from a town like that, if not smaller. Place I’m from isn’t a lot bigger, but it definitely wasn’t like his. They probably still carry hunting rifles to school. They get like a week off for deer hunting season because they wouldn’t show anyways

Waraugh ,

That just gave me some deep seated nostalgia, I forgot how much I enjoyed that week off of school we’d get. I feel so out of place trying to get my sons raised up sometimes. My entire grade size was never over 37 and that was with five combined towns going to the same school. We live in a town of fifty thousand people in a different state and everything feels so big to me even though I’ve lived here nearly twenty years. Anytime I’ve stayed in a real city for more than a night or two my anxiety goes into overdrive, I don’t know how people do it.

Cadeillac ,
@Cadeillac@lemmy.world avatar

I’m right there with you friend. Pretty similar situations minus the children

HostilePasta ,

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.

Maeve ,

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.

dogsnest ,
@dogsnest@lemmy.world avatar

It’s the perfect hunting rifle for when a herd of deer stampedes.

NOT_RICK ,
@NOT_RICK@lemmy.world avatar

Lost a lot of good men out there in the deer stampede hunts

CCMan1701A ,

I’m waiting for someone to explain to me how an automatic gun/rifle is needed for hunting animals/deer.

Sir_Kevin ,
@Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

AR-15’s are not automatic. Also, automatic firearms are already illegal for the majority of civilians.

BigDotNet ,

Welcome to America…

Eezyville ,
@Eezyville@sh.itjust.works avatar

Why these people giving weapons to their kids before they’re even in high school?

TimLovesTech , (edited )
@TimLovesTech@badatbeing.social avatar

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.

ModernEraCaveman ,

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

jballs ,
@jballs@sh.itjust.works avatar

Why these people giving weapons to their kids after the sheriff first contacted you to investigate school shooting threats your kid made online,

ThePantser ,
@ThePantser@lemmy.world avatar

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.

MegaUltraChicken ,

you fuckers ain’t gonna tell me you will have a child in your militia

“We absolutely will.” -Conservatives

girlfreddy ,
@girlfreddy@lemmy.ca avatar

If they can work in meat processors, they can join the militia.

/s

SupraMario ,

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.

Chozo ,

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".

HostilePasta ,

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.

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