Looks like the parents of the michigan shooter will be facing legal troubles of their own. From what is said in the video it looks like they were more interested in being buddies to their kid instead of parents. Based on what I’ve heard so far, I am leaning towards they are responsible in some way. Let me know what you all think.
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“ In a separate appearance on MSNBC, the top prosecutor in Oakland County said Thursday that the teen appeared to have “free access” to the gun.”
Not only that, they claim they bought it for the kid. Really???
Responsible gun owners don’t buy SA pistols for their kids. Nope!
And I just read more in the article. Lots of dumb going on there if it’s all true.
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Why not? There are many children that compete in shooting sports, or just plink and/or hunt. My father’s rifles and shotguns were in an unlocked gun cabinet with the ammo on top of it. My siblings and I knew not to touch unless he was around.
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In the article is sounds like the kid had unrestricted access and the parents didn’t supervise. The parents said the gun was kept in an unlocked bedroom drawer. Just think there was a lot of irresponsible behavior by the parents being friends with their kid and not his parents. I will be cleaning guns and take the magazine out of one of my pistols and visual check the chamber before handing it to my 14 year old son and he still does a chamber check himself after seeing me do it. When I ask him why he says you should always check for yourself–I still keep my guns in the safe and he doesn’t know the combo. I don’t care how responsible he is, he is only 14 and stupidity is inherent at that age.
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OK, I get it. The parents didn’t lock up the gun and kiddo got a hold of it and allegedly committed a terrible crime. So if I don’t lock my medicine cabinet and junior takes a bottle of Oxy’s and gives them to his buddy that OD’s, am I responsible? If I leave a 12 pack of Bud in the fridge and kido get’s drunk and wrecks his car, am I responsible? Or even better, say kiddo runs my lawn mower over the neighbors foot, am I responsible? In each case it’s my stuff that kiddo got ahold of with a terrible outcome. Where do I draw the line? Do you charge me for being a bad parent, should have taught kiddo better?
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In some respects, yes. I do think we as parents are responsible for our kids’ actions as we are the ones who taught them how to behave. That doesn’t mean that kids aren’t going to do stupid stuff no matter what but we as parents can take some measures to make sure that accidents are less likely to happen.
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A major problem with some people with children is they want to be friends/pals/buddies with the children instead of being parents.
One byproduct of this is when the child gets older he or she may physically abuse the parents. Happens more than is reported. Why do you think many children are on the streets when they should be in bed? Blah, blah…
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7 degrees of separation from Balwin family, perhaps?
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Should have been more aware of this kid’s mental state and acted accordingly.
Hours before the rampage, a teacher saw Crumbley engage in “concerning” behavior that prompted school officials to pull him into an office and call his parents for a meeting, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard told CNN. After that discussion, Crumbley was allowed back to class.
There is a “strong possibility” Crumbley had the gun he allegedly used in the shooting in his backpack during the meeting, prosecutor Karen McDonald of Oakland County told CNN.
“During Covid, they don’t use lockers, so they just have backpacks,” she said.
“Unfortunately, he was allowed to get back to class, and we now know that he had a weapon with him at that time, and that is simply tragic,” McDonald said.
Bouchard told CNN on Friday morning’s “New Day” that the school’s video surveillance cameras will let investigators “really map out exactly and literally watch what the perpetrator did” from that meeting through the shooting and being taken into custody.
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Some context needed here.
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In a nutshell, yes. Responsible for the behavior of a minor is part of what “parent” means. Just my opinion.
How the law sees that seems to vary a lot from state to state. This is an interesting overview of state laws. PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY LAWS IN ALL 50 STATES It’s not clear to me whether this table is speaking only to civil liability for damages, or if it is also addressing criminal responsibility and consequences.
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Just how my wife grew up, and never an incident— not one.
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Imagine a world where parents are responsible to parent their offspring! Can’t we just see that a child is supposed to be taught morals, respect, and obedience by those who brought them into this world?
That is not how the U.S. operates even though, at one time, it was a norm of society. It is a bit late to arise and claim that this is the standard in our country when it has not been for a very long time. Now our children are raised by public schools, peers, TV, and the internet. Parents are busy at work and don’t have time (nor, possibly the inclination) to take responsibility for their kids. Therefore, legislative bodies pass laws that mandate how things our to be done in our homes - a band-aid for parental failures.
And things just keep sliding downhill.
I find it interesting that there are those who say that it is “common sense” that I lock up everything in my house because someone might cause harm if that someone gets hands on it. Excuse me while I go lock up my hammers and steak knives.
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Ok, easy context…
Parents don’t buy 14 y/o kids an SA pistol and then allow them to have unsupervised, unfettered access to it. Lotsa dumb going on there.
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Yes, well the fact that I didn’t include "and give them unlimited access to it, was just an oversight. I think that’s fairly obvious.
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Sure - ok, that’s nice. That’s also different than buying a 14 y/o kid a SA pistol and just leaving it in an unlocked drawer. The kid did not have the emotional maturity to know how to be safe around a gun. And I believe he has proven the point.
In a world in which 80% of the crap on TV and in the theater involve lots of guns (and usually the main characters don’t experience the potential downside of guns, nor do they routinely demonstrate safe handling of firearms - and THIS is who our kids are learning from), it’s simply different than when we were growing up.
You cannot leave unsecured firearms around kids.
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You failed to address my other points regarding children having access to firearms, but I am sure that was intentional. I am not sure what relevance access to an SA pistol has anything to hunting nor to competition shooting, but believe what you may. It is obvious that you do not believe in our inalienable RKBA. You clearly believe our government should dictate what our rights should be.
My father did, without detriment to me, my siblings, nor society. I will also add that in my community as a child, unsecured firearms were the norm. I am not aware of any home that had firearms where they were secured - again, without any harm to individuals, nor to the community.
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Hmmm how about not blaming tv, video games & movies for not teaching children what real life is, not to mess with things they should not mess with. In times past firearms in my home were in closets & drawers. Did they know that? You betcha. Did they touch them? No because they knew if an adult found out there’d be hell to pay. Way too many children nowadays are spoiled whiners, parents pussyfooting around them wanting to be buddies. Then wondering why terrible things happen. Just me…
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@David-65 I grew up the same way. Rifles and shotguns mostly, with a shotgun loaded behind the door always. We lived in some wild areas and one night my Dad heard the chickens squawking and thought it was a fox again, well when he turned on the flash light (no like we have today) there was a Black Bear with a chicken in its mouth, as the Bear turned to run my Dad shot him in the a$$ with a load of #4 bird shot. We never saw him again and the chicken survived. But I digress.
I was introduced to guns at a very young age and was taught they were used to kill, not until later I was introduced to practice and target shooting and hunting. I would never have thought to touch a gun without an adult or to just shoot some one for the hell of it. It was a great way to grow up. 
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This seems to be more on point. In my admittedly limited experience, the parents who cry loudest about how their kids were ruined by movies, TV, and video games often turn out to be same parents who let those venues raise their children in the first place.
I also don’t agree that restricting a 14 year old’s access to firearms is incompatible with fully supporting the RTKBA. Children in general don’t have the same rights as adults, and for good reason. When that child has the sort of “issues” demonstrated by this young man (“allegedly”, all caveats in place), it seems to me that parents with any degree of involvement would be aware that something is wrong and thus be even more careful.
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