Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

Popular Hip-Hop Show Listeners Call For Holding Parents ‘Accountable’ For Georgia School Shooting, Not Gun Control

Charlamagne Tha God on CNN. [Screenshot/CNN/"The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer"]

Listeners of “The Breakfast Club” called into the show Thursday morning to push for the parents of 14-year-old Colt Gray, the suspected Georgia school shooter, to face accountability, but did not call for gun control.

Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) officials announced the arrest of 54-year-old Colin Gray, the suspected shooter’s father, on Thursday evening in connection with the Wednesday Apalachee High School shooting, which left four dead and nine injured. During the show’s “Get It Off Your Chest” segment, back-to-back callers voiced their frustrations at the suspected shooter’s parents rather than the rifle he allegedly used, but co-host Charlamagne Tha God signaled his support for banning AR-15-style rifles in addition to parental accountability.

LISTEN:

“People should be allowed to have guns and stuff like that, you know, that’s the Second Amendment right, you know and training and all that. You know, I trained my kids at a young age to use firearms because we live in the country and stuff like that,” a caller named Rick from North Carolina said. “But I mean, the parents should be able to watch their kids and know what’s going on. And the little boy probably got the gun probably three or four years ago for a Christmas present, been practicing with it and everything, you know?”

Local authorities made contact with the Gray family in 2023 after anonymous tips to the FBI regarding alleged threats. Colin Gray allegedly purchased the AR-15-style rifle used in the shooting at a local gun store as a Christmas present for his son, a source told CNN.

“But when he got mad or whatever, you know, and said some stuff about shooting up the school or whatever, you know, the parents should have been on top of things. So I feel like the parents should be accountable for what the child does,” Rick continued. “In a case like that, it was fine for over a year … but now he goes and does it, you know? They should have took the guns or whatever if they thought it was going to be a problem.”

Charlamagne said he’s “2A all day,” but doesn’t understand “why people need weapons of war in their house if they’re not planning to go to war. Like what’s the point?”

Co-host DJ Envy agreed with Charlamagne about prohibiting AR-15-style rifles.

“I was just thinking about the mass shooting. Don’t we think it’s time that we start putting the parents in jail for not locking up their guns?” a caller named Sheila asked, to which Charlamagne and Envy answered affirmatively.

“I think more parents … that start being held responsible … for not locking up their guns, I think they should go to jail,” Sheila added. “That’s all I want to say this morning. I just think we should start locking up the parents.”

James and Jennifer Crumbley made history in April as the first parents to get convicted and sentenced in relation to their child’s school shooting that led to the death of four students at Oxford High School in Michigan in 2021. Judge Cheryl Matthews ordered that both parents spend 10-15 years in prison after the prosecution.