A Georgia father who gave his son the rifle used to kill four people at Apalachee High School was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Thursday. Judge Nicholas Primm told Colin Gray he had “failed as a parent” in a case that underscores growing legal accountability for parents in school shootings.

Colin Gray, 55, was convicted in March of second-degree murder for the deaths of two 14-year-old students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, and manslaughter for teachers Richard Aspinwall and Cristina Irimie. His son Colt, now 16, was sentenced to life without parole earlier this week.

Judge Primm acknowledged the profound loss but stressed the need to distinguish Gray’s actions from his son’s. “The law requires that I set aside emotion,” he said, while expressing sympathy for the victims’ families, some of whom had sought the maximum 80-year sentence.

Gray purchased the SIG Sauer SIGM400 rifle as a Christmas gift for his son a year before the shooting. Family members, including Colt’s mother Marcee Gray, had raised concerns about the teen’s mental health and urged Gray to secure the weapons.

Prosecutor Brad Smith highlighted warning signs, including a shrine Colt allegedly built in his bedroom to a Parkland school shooter. “This was the risk he was ignoring,” Smith said. “He gave his son the exact tool he would need.”

The case mirrors the Michigan conviction of the Crumbley parents, who also gifted a firearm to their son and received 10-year sentences. Judge Primm concluded: “The warning lights were flashing brighter and brighter, and you didn’t get him help, and you didn’t remove his access to the guns.”

Source: www.aljazeera.com