Kerby Anderson

Should parents be held criminally liable if their child shoots others in a school or public place? That is a question being considered in Georgia. The 14-year-old shooter (who killed four people) has been indicted, but so has his 54-year-old father.

Earlier this year, a jury in Michigan convicted parents after their son killed four students and wounded six others. They were prosecuted for being negligent. They knew of their son’s mental health issues and failed to secure the family firearms.

Let’s look at this question logically and take guns out of the equation for a minute. Imagine a 4-year-old is left in a car that is running for a moment by a mother (who went to get the mail or open the garage door). He jumps into the car seat, somehow puts the car in reverse and backs over and kills four people. I think all of us would assume the parents are fully responsible for his act because of negligence.

Now change it to a 30-year-old in a car who mows down and kills four people in a moment of road rage. We wouldn’t hold the parents responsible at all. But what would we think if it was a 14-year-old doing the same thing?

In the Georgia case, there are other factors. The shooter had made previous threats and was interviewed by the police. His father bought him the gun. Other family members report the family was dysfunctional and the boy was the subject of lots of verbal abuse and suffering from significant emotional turmoil.

Those factors explain why the Georgia authorities charged the father with involuntary manslaughter, second degree murder, and cruelty to children. We will learn more as the case progresses, but this case sends a clear signal to parents that they are responsible for their child’s mental state and subsequent actions.