Another Mass Shooting Leads to Questions About the Parents’ Responsibility

By: Grace Liu

As more and more mass shootings occur throughout the United States, millions of parents worry daily about their children becoming a victim. But for a smaller, but growing group, they have a different concern when roles are reversed. As an increasing amount of young people commit terrible crimes, it leads many people to think, “What role do the parent’s play in this?”

Some parents of the gunmen have spent many months and even years before the attack occurs, worrying about their child’s mental wellness and try to seek help, but most never alert authorities. Some parents change their names and leave town, while others speak out to try to prevent future attacks.

The father of the alleged suspect of the Highland Park Shooting in Illinois during the Fourth of July parade shooting that killed 7, supposedly sponsored his son’s firearm license, even though his son attempted suicide before that, and the police were called to his house after the suspect said he was going to “kill everyone.”

As more and more of the countries mass shootings are carried out by killers in their teens and early 20’s. Over 50 people under the age of 25 have killed more than 4 people in public since 1966. As a result, researchers are conducting studies on their parents to see if there are patterns in how the children are raised.

Many people argue that parents who don't try to prevent violent behavior and, in this sense, support it, should be charged. Parents of shooters have been charged on some occasions, however. According to New York Times, “When a 15-year-old in Michigan was accused of slaughtering four classmates last year, his parents were charged with involuntary manslaughter; they have pleaded not guilty. And after a 29-year-old man went on a killing spree at a Waffle House in Nashville in 2018, the man’s father, an Illinois resident, was charged in that state with illegally providing the gun used at the restaurant.”

There also has been times where the parents’ and classmates warned authorities but were ignored. As a result, there was another huge mass shooting.

Over the span of these past few decades, there has been more and more mass shootings, and we need to try and prevent these shootings.

Link to Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/10/us/highland-park-shooting-parents.html