Tom Pappert, reporter at The Georgia Star News, said it seems “incomprehensibly stupid and irresponsible” and “difficult to comprehend” that the father of 14-year-old Colt Gray, who allegedly killed four and injured nine more at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia last week, gifted his son an AR-15-style rifle just months after an FBI tip prompted a visit from the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office in 2023.
On Thursday, just one day after Gray allegedly carried out the shooting, Pappert reported that the rifle used during the shooting was reportedly gifted to Gray by his father for Christmas last year.
The reported gifting of the rifle from the father, Colin Gray, to his son also came just seven months after the Gray’s were visited by the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office after the FBI received “several anonymous tips about online threats to commit a school shooting,” and traced the information to Colt Gray, in May 2023.
Pappert said the father’s decision to give the rifle to his son after being visited by law enforcement for the online threats is “difficult to comprehend.”
“It’s difficult to even comprehend how this could have come into his head. The only thing that I can speculate is he claimed in that FBI interview that ‘Hell, my son’s doing much better since we got him to this new school.’ That interview was in May. Christmas comes up in six months or so, maybe by then he’s thinking, ‘Oh, my son is doing so well, I will reward him for his strong academic performance by buying him a rifle.’ Six months ago, to be told that your son is accused of planning and talking about a school shooting at an unidentified place and time, it seems dramatically and incomprehensibly stupid and irresponsible,” Pappert said on Friday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
Pappert went on to point out that a father gifting his middle school-aged son an AR-15-style rifle was also out of the ordinary.
“Generally at that age, you’re more in your baby’s first hunting rifle era of gun ownership. This isn’t when you’re ready to go get an AR-15 and go to the range. You should have something practical if we’re going to get the kid interested in shooting. It seems bizarre, and it seems to me that maybe the kid asked it from his father,” Pappert said.
Another troubling factor Pappert pointed out while attempting to fathom why the father would gift his son a rifle was a report from law enforcement that it was “apparent” from the appearance of Gray’s bedroom that he was obsessed with school shooting incidents, especially the 2018 Parkland high school shooting in Florida.
“We’ve had leaks from the law enforcement that apparently is unwilling to wait for somebody else to decide when they can speak publicly, and so we found out almost immediately that Colt Gray was allegedly obsessed with school shootings, his favorite apparently being Parkland,” Pappert explained.
“And this was all allegedly or apparently readily apparent to law enforcement as they walked inside the family home and this, again, is only really less than a year from the Christmas where this gun was given and I come back to this: The father doesn’t go into his son’s bedroom to find out that his son is obsessed with the shooting? Apparently, according to the Daily Mail, which had law enforcement sources, it was readily apparent and observable with the naked eye,” Pappert added.
The father has since been arrested and charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second degree murder, and eight counts of cruelty to children.
When it comes to the motivation or explanation behind Wednesday’s shooting, Pappert said he believes it’s a combination of the “destruction of mental health, destruction of an American family, and the destruction of an American community.”
“Until these three things are addressed, I don’t know how you’re going to get to the source of shootings like we saw on Wednesday,” Pappert added.
Watch the full interview:
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
