Fostering the New Generation

Parents and students are seen following a shooting at Oxford High School in Oxford, Mich., on Nov. 30. 2021. (Eric Seals/Detroit Free Press/The Associated Press)

"This was not just an impulsive act."  

"[The shooting should be a wake-up call for new gun laws in a country that has become] desensitized to school shootings." 

"We have to do better. How many times does this have to happen? How many times?"

"What about all the children who ran, screaming, hiding under desks? … Those are victims, too, and so are their families and so is the community."

"Owning a gun means securing it properly and locking it and keeping the ammunition separate."

"The notion that a parent could read those words and also know that their son had access to a deadly weapon that they gave him is unconscionable, and I think it is criminal."

Oakland County prosecutor Karen McDonald

Under state law Michigan prohibits under-18s from buying or possessing firearms. Exceptions are made for hunting with a licence along with the presence of a supervising adult. The 15-year-old high school student whose parents gave him an early Christmas gift of a gun were breaking the law, and perhaps intentionally. People who cling to the Second Amendment right of gun ownership in the American Constitution are fond of making a show of contempt defying gun-possession laws, all the more so that despised element of society in the US that excoriates the gun lobby, blaming it for the outbreak of school shootings in the past several decades.

 

 Oakland County prosecutor Karen McDonald explained that the four involuntary manslaughter charges laid against James and Jennifer Crumbley, along with a fugitive warrant when they failed to show up at a scheduled arraignment three days following their 15-year-old son's shooting carnage at his high school was warranted. Its intention was to "send a message: that gun owners have a responsibility". These parents, by their actions, appear to believe there was no responsibility incumbent upon them, either to their son, or to the community at large.

 

After a search that included the FBI, local detectives and the U.S. Marshals Service, the couple's presence was discovered where they had isolated themselves in an out-of-town unoccupied building. Their lawyer stated "The Crumbleys left town on the night of the tragic shooting for their own safety. They are returning to the area to be arraigned. They are not fleeing from law enforcement". Law enforcement however, caught up with the pair, and arrested them.

 

The history leading up to the atrocity where a 15-year-old student carried a lethal weapon to his high school with the intention of murdering other students may be revealed in time, during a trial that will spotlight the mental condition of the teen, and his parents' apparent disinterest in their son's obsession with guns and killing. However, leading up to the shooting son Ethan accompanied his father on a trip to a local gun shop. There James Crumbley bought a semi-automatic handgun. Presumably, he attested to the shop owner or attendant in filling out the required forms that the gun was for his own personal use. 

 

That same day Ethan Crumbley proudly posted photographs of his Christmas gift on social media: "Just got my new beauty today", a heart emoji expressing and emphasizing his pleasure. This was followed a day later with his mother posting on her own social media account that she and he were "testing out his new Christmas present". With this kind of blaring evidence at hand, it hardly seems that prosecutors will find it difficult to prove in court that the gun was purchased specifically as a gift for the 15-year-old.

 

According to a Southern Methodist University law professor, Eric Ruben, if prosecutors can prove the parents' direct action led to the deaths -- as an example buying the gun, it could be shown the parents had legal duty to the victims in preventing their son from acting out his vile fantasies. For frightening fantasies there were in the presence of warning signs in days leading up to the shooting spree at Oxford High School, 60 km north of Detroit. 

 

On one occasion,  a teacher had noticed the boy searching on his phone for ammunition. She took the step of immediately alerting school officials who in turn left alarmed messages for the teen's mother. Presumably messages she would have received, but failed to respond to. Jennifer Crumbley instead wrote in reaction to the unreturned messages from school officials "LOL, I'm not mad at you. You have to learn not to get caught" -- to her son. 

 

Another teacher, the very morning of the shooting, discovered a drawing produced by Ethan Crumbley. That drawing was of a handgun, a bullet, and a bleeding figure, with the words "Blood everywhere", along with "The thoughts won't stop -- help me" -- reported prosecutor McDonald. This led directly to James and Jennifer Crumbley being summoned to the school. There, they were given instructions to take their son into mental health counselling within 48 hours. Their reaction was to disregard the order from school authorities.

 

They left their son at the school, failed to search his backpack, and had no interest in speaking with him about the gun, according to prosecutor McDonald. He was left to remain in class where he walked out of a bathroom with his gun, firing it and killing four students, and hitting and injuring another seven people, according to authorities. Who also noted that when news of an active shooter at the school reached Jennifer Crumbley, she sent her son a text message: "Don't do it".

 

Students hug at a memorial at Oxford High School in Oxford, Mich., on Wednesday. Authorities say a 15-year-old sophomore opened fire at the school, killing four students and wounding seven other people on Tuesday. (Paul Sancya/The Associated Press)