A rifle for Christmas: Are parents responsible for their kids' crimes?

He'd left his alcoholic, drug-addicted wife, taking custody of his teenage son. His son was bullied in middle school, then accused of posting online threats to attack the school. He told investigators his son didn't have access to his hunting rifles. Then, a few months later, he gave his son a semi-automatic rifle for Christmas.

In "The Christmas Story," a boy's desire for a Red Ryder BB gun is seen as cute.

Now Colin Gray has been charged with multiple counts of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter. His 14-year son is charged with using his rifle to kill four people -- two teachers and two students -- and wound nine others at his new high school in Winder, Georgia.

This the second time a parent has been parent has been charged with manslaughter for a mass shooting committed by a child, reports Joyce Lupiani for Fox News. The parents of 15-year-old Ethan Crumbly, who killed four students at a Michigan high school, were convicted of failing to secure the gun he used and not seeking help for their son's mental illness.

"It is not the first time a parent has faced repercussions for criminal acts committed by their offspring," writes Lupini. "In Virginia, Deja Taylor, the mother of a 6-year-old who shot his teacher in January 2023, was sentenced to two years in prison for felony child neglect."

"At least 42 states and the District of Columbia have laws that allow parents to be held criminally responsible for their children's actions," she reports. "Georgia law allows for criminal liability if parents are found to have contributed to their child’s delinquent behavior through neglect or failure to properly supervise."

On The 74, Mark Keierleber looked at the long history of holding parents responsible for their children's crimes.

Blaming parents camouflages "the abject failure of the federal and state governments to adequately regulate gun safety," writes Megan K. Stack in a New York Times op-ed. Georgia legislators, despite knowing the risk of school shootings by disturbed teenagers, have failed to pass laws require secure storage of guns, she points out.

The U.S. will not ban law-abiding, sane adults from owning guns, but it is possible for states to require them to be locked up at home so children (and burglars) can't get at them easily.