Colin Gray gets 15 years for giving his teenage son the rifle used in a Georgia school shooting

The case turns on a harder question than whether Gray was a bad parent: when does ignoring danger make a parent criminally responsible for a child’s intentional killings?

A Georgia jury convicted Gray of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter after his 14-year-old son killed two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School. Prosecutors sought 80 years across 27 counts; the judge imposed concurrent terms totaling 15 years.

Context“Warning signs” is too vague to judge the verdict. This is the evidence prosecutors put together: In September 2021, the boy used a school computer to search “how to kill your dad.” In May 2023, an FBI tip about an online school-shooting threat was traced to the family home. Deputies could not prove who made it, but told Gray to keep guns inaccessible. Gray gave his son a Sig Sauer AR-style rifle for Christmas in 2023. The family’s guns were not kept in a safe or secured with locks; testimony placed the rifle in the boy’s bedroom or at the top of an unlocked closet. The boy maintained a shrine to the Parkland school shooter. Gray said he did not know what it was. In August 2024, the boy texted his father, “This is the end for you,” “Whenever something happens, blood is on your hands,” and “I’m restraining myself for what I want to do.” Gray searched for a mental-health facility but did not complete an intake. The boy’s mother said a crisis program was supposed to evaluate him; Gray said he had planned to arrange school counseling the following week. The defense’s answer was that the boy hid his plan, police had not substantiated the 2023 threat, and several messages had less ominous explanations at the time. That dispute—what Gray actually knew before the shooting—is why this first-of-its-kind conviction creates a difficult precedent.

Has this happened before?

In 2024, James and Jennifer Crumbley were each sentenced to 10 to 15 years for involuntary manslaughter after their son’s school shooting.