“Based on available information”
No, I wouldn’t charge but who knows what comes out. From what I see from a few stories is the press is attempting to paint a violent family where there is none.
My guess is the kid is developing schizophrenia and he hasn’t been diagnosed yet.
Here’s some stuff I’ve read and why I think none is actionable (for charging parents):
-”Parents have criminal records”: Yes, DUI and bad check stuff, all around 10 years old. No gun or violence charges so not enough to make me think it’s a terrible household.
-”Parents shown pic”: - This might be enough to get the kid checked out by a shrink, but if it were such a true sign of impending violence, the kid would’ve been kicked out of the school immediately.
If the parents are not guilty of taking action here, then so is the school. Also keep in mind, in some states, kids have been kicked out of schooling for using their index finger and thumb as a “gun”. The parents don’t seem to appreciate overreaction based on what I’ve read. Unfortunately in this case, the pic turned out to be a sign, but, again, no way to really know in advance. Abundance of caution in this regards means kids being expelled for pew-pew sounds.
Also along these lines, the kid was previously “caught” looking up ammo on his phone. The school didn’t like this either but given the impending xmas gift, not surprising and probably gave the parents the impression that the school was filled with overreacting anti gun nuts. Were it not for this, they may have actually taken the pic more seriously.
-”Xmas present”/”Don’t do it”: The father bought the gun and a media post says it’s his present. Ok, so what? Does this mean they planned on the kid toting it around outside of their control? The only people I hear fearing getting kids trained how to respect and handle firearms are anti gun folks typically.
The “Don’t Do It line” was a text about a half hour after the shooting. Father called 911 around same time. Sounds to me like they heard about the shooting, checked to find the gun missing, and acted as they did. Had there been a “don’t do it” before the shooting and no 911 call, I might lean towards parent culpability but that is apparently not the case.
-”Prosecuter says parents difficult to work with”, From another article which also says they elected to remain silent from the get go so it looks like we have another AG’s office that has deep problems with the 5th amendment like in the Rittenhouse case.
-”Guns not locked up” - a mistake but not agains the law there. Same with ammo.
I think that about covers what I’ve heard, “fact-wise”.
It IS against the law.