That’s an ok argument. But I think a lot of people are wondering why they allowed him such privileges since he was an adult, effectively out of school, on his own, and attempting to work. I can only assume the next step was self-sustenance. It would seem to be among a set of common sense/courtesy rules...no smoking in the house, no girls in your bedroom or overnight, no dogs. And among those sorts of restrictions - no guns would have to among those. It really has nothing to do with guns really - just practical priorities. If you can’t put a roof over your head - maybe you have better things to spend your money on than an arsenal of weapons...or maintain a dog...or a woman. Priorities. I think those are reasonable restrictions and no one should fear being seen as “anti-gun” for asking a transient guest to live within those boundaries.
I think these folks who took him in saw him through the eyes of their son, who was still in high school - more like a kid - and not an adult.
But I think those are the questions - not so much what they really knew about the kid.
A month is not enough time to get to know someone. As they knew him better, maybe they would have prohibited his guns in the house.
All they saw was a severely depressed kid. Knowing his mother just died, it is possible they were cutting him a lot of slack.
“Hey honey, this 19 year old is depressed over his mother’s recent death. Hey, lets take all his guns away so he goes over the edge and slits his wrists in the bathtub while we are at work.”
See my point. They had him like a month or 90 days. They didn’t know him. They didn’t know he was mentally ill or a massive problem with police. With his mothers recent death, that all they thought his problem was. Just simple grieving he would get over in time.
That is why they said they now realize he was a monster. They didn’t have the time to know and attributed any strange behavior to normally expected grief over recently losing his mother.
I don’t see how anybody could blame this nice couple for any part in this disaster. They were nice enough to take in an adult stranger. Honestly, I would never have done that. I would have said, “tough nuts, I can’t take him in”.
They are better Christians than I am. They gave food and shelter to a person in need when I would not have.
God Bless them.