A Michigan jury recently convicted the mother of a 15-year old school shooter of involuntary manslaughter.
The issue was whether Jennifer Crumbley had any responsibility for her son’s murder of four students in 2021. She was accused of gross negligence because she failed to tell school officials the family had guns, including a 9 mm handgun that son Ethan used on a shooting range the weekend before the attack. The charges said she had a duty under Michigan law to keep Ethan from harming others, of failing to secure a gun and ammunition, and failing to get her some mental health help.
The morning of the shooting, Ethan’s parents were summoned to the school after staff members had seen a violent drawing of a gun, bullet, and a wounded man along with “desparate phrases” on his math assignment. The parents did not take him home and not long afterwards, the boy pulled a gun out of his backpack and shot ten fellow students and a teacher. For students were killed. The gun was he same 9mm pistol his father had bought with him and that he had practiced with on the shooting range. She said she had seen no signs of mental problems with her son and that it was her husband’s job, not hers, to keep track of the gun. Father James Crumbley goes on trial later in March.
Ethan, now 17, is in prison for life. His journal complains, “I have zero help for my mental problems.”
This is a landmark legal case. The Crumbleys are the first parents in this country to be held criminally liable for the killings their children commit. We’ll be watching to see what ripples might flow from Michigan to other states when other mass shootings happen. The shooter might not always be the only one held responsible. And what changes in laws might that threat bring about?
We wonder what kind of ripples will be caused by by the Michigan approach of filing negligence against parents for the crimes of their children. We wonder if any of OUR state’s prosecutors would go after Missouri parents when such an incident happens here.
The Centers for Disease Control, etc., say Missouri is ninth in gun deaths and is ranked by Everytown for Gun Safety 38th in gun law strength
The legislature has gone to extremes at times “defending” Second Amendment rights. Case in point: A 2021 law banning the state from enforcing any federal laws the state thinks infringe on those rights. The U. S. Supreme Court threw out that law as unconstitutional last fall.
A few state lawmakers spoke out against the states laissez-fare attitude about gun violence. But others have sidestepped any serious thought about it, admitting only—in effect, “Yes, it’s a problem.” Or sidestepping the other way by saying, “It’s not a gun problem; it’s a mental health problem” and then puttiing little or no emphasis on dealing with that mental health problem.
But Missouri prosecutors might learn from the Michigan experience—filing negligence charges against those who should have known better than to let a friend, a relative, or a child have access to a gun and bullets if that person is known to be troubled.
It’s a small thing. But it might be a way to bring about some justice in a high-murder state with seemingly little interest from the political powers-that-be to do anything meaningful about it.