One day after the Deadly shooting at Apalachee High School In Winder, Georgia, authorities are releasing more information about the weapon used in the shooting that killed two students and two teachers and injured nine others.
The alleged shooter, Colt Gray, was the last to use a type of weapon that has been commonly used in mass shootingsincluding deadly school shootings in Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, as well as mass shootings in a Buffalo, New York, supermarket and on the The Las Vegas Strip.
Here’s what you need to know about the gun authorities say was used by 14-year-old suspectwho was charged with four counts of murder.
What weapon was used in the Georgia school shooting?
Authorities said Wednesday that the weapon used by the suspect was a AR-type platform rifleThese weapons, based on the AR-15 model, are lightweight, consumer-favorite semi-automatic rifles. Although they are often called “assault rifles” (a term that gun advocates consider misleading), the “AR” stands for ArmaLite, the company that developed the original AR-15.
High velocity ammunition fired by these types of weapons can break the bonebut thousands are sold each year.
How did the alleged Georgia shooter get the gun?
In the Winder, Georgia, shooting, CBS News has learned that police and federal agents are investigating whether the suspect received the gun as a gift from his father, Colin Gray, in December 2023, according to four federal law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation.
The 54-year-old father was arrested on Thursday charged with second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and cruelty to children, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
“These charges stem from Mr. Gray knowingly allowing his son, Colt, to possess a firearm,” GBI Director Chris Hosey said at a news conference Thursday evening.
In a 2023 survey on online shooting threatsLocal police spoke with the suspect’s father, who said he, the father, owned shotguns but that the teen did not have unsupervised access to them, according to incident reports obtained by CBS News.
Are these weapons legal in Georgia?
Georgia law prohibits minors from owning handguns, but there is no minimum age to own a rifle or shotgun in Georgia. The state also places few restrictions on adults who wish to carry firearms.
Under federal and state law, the teen would not have been legally allowed to purchase a handgun, rifle or shotgun. According to the Giffords Center, people must be at least 18 years old to purchase handguns in Georgia, while federal law sets the same minimum age for purchasing shotguns and rifles, as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said.
Is there a lot of gun violence in Georgia schools?
Over the past decade, Georgia has ranked 10th nationally for gun violence on school campuses per 100,000 people and 16th for deadly school shootings per capita, according to a report from the American Statistical Institute. CBS News Analysis data from the Elementary and Secondary School Shootings Database and 2020 U.S. Census population estimates.
What are the gun laws in Georgia?
In Georgia, adults are not required to have a license to purchase rifles, shotguns or handguns, nor are they required to register their firearms with the government. Additionally, no license is required to carry rifles and shotguns, according to the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action.
In 2022, Georgia passed a permit-free carry law, eliminating the need for a permit, fingerprinting, and background check to carry concealed weapons in public.
Georgia’s laws are among the least strict in the country, according to a CBS News analysis.
Does Georgia have a red flag law?
Extreme Risk Protection Orders, commonly known as “Red Flag” Lawsallow a court to order the temporary removal of firearms from a person deemed to be at risk of harming themselves or others. Twenty-one states have such laws in place, but Georgia is not one of them, according to Everytown, a gun safety advocacy group.
Georgia state Rep. Gabe Okoye, a Democrat whose district is close to Winder, told CBS News that a red flag law in Georgia could have prevented the Apalachee High School shooting.
“If we had a red flag law, I think this wouldn’t have happened because the child had been flagged several times before,” he said.
In some states, family members can file extreme risk protection orders. In other states, petitions can only be filed by law enforcement. Petitions filed by law enforcement tend to end up in court, said April Zeoli, an associate professor at the University of Michigan who studies these laws, and the court can order that guns be removed from the home or placed in a secure location inside or outside the home.
Petitions filed by family members tend to have more difficulty getting approved because “it’s easier for law enforcement to understand the whole process than it is for civilians, because they know what counts as evidence and what doesn’t,” Zeoli said.
How effective are red flag laws in stopping mass shootings?
Zeoli led a six-state study — the largest in the U.S. — of extreme risk protection orders. Preliminary data the research team collected on about 6,500 cases filed in states including Michigan, Vermont and Florida showed that about 3% of the orders were filed in cases involving juveniles, Zeoli said. About 10% were filed in cases involving people who threatened to commit mass shootings, and the majority of extreme risk protection orders were filed for suicidality or mental health concerns.
“What we know is that extreme protective orders for mass shootings are not associated with subsequent mass shootings,” Zeoli said. “These people are not committing mass shootings.” However, she cautioned, it remains difficult to quantify whether the extreme protective order stopped the shooting or whether other factors were involved.
Law enforcement is also facing challenges on the ground, said Christopher Carita, a Fort Lauderdale Police Department detective who investigates threats of mass gun violence and other cases that require the use of extreme protective orders. He said he has investigated about 30 cases involving minors and that using a petition can “make a difference a year or two down the road.”
Mass shootings in which four or more people are killed or injured represent only a small fraction of the number of gun deaths and injuries in schools in the United States. More than 75% of deaths and 68% of injuries occur in incidents that are not classified as mass shootings and do not garner as much attention, according to the K-12 School Shootings Database.
and Grace Manthey contributed to this report.
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