“and past time for parents to learn what the signs of schizophrenia are, and if they don’t want to, or won’t learn, then hold them liable for gross negligence”
And then what?
It is extremely difficult to get such persons help to prevent violent outcomes.
There’s a young man I used to manage the social security for (he is disabled mainly for schizophrenia), and he violently attacked a family member that required a restraining order. He’s been to jail. He’s been locked up for psych evals several times. He’s made death threats numerous times (including to me). He’s a big guy and once had to get tazed when several large police officers could not restrain him. Yet even in these situations the authorities didn’t take the time or effort to be sure he was put into a program that required him to continuously be monitored for taking his prescribed medications, let alone having him committed.
As long as someone recognizes the symptoms and tries to get them help. Granted, sometimes the help doesn’t work, but at least someone tried. Its not negligence if you try.
Its negligence if you stubbornly refuse to admit to yourself that a family member or friend has serious mental problems and you do absolutely nothing about it. Allowing someone with an obvious serious mental illness to have guns is asking for trouble.
There is no way the parents of this kid did not know something was wrong with him. Maybe they did try to help him and it didn’t take. At this point, we just don’t know.