"It's exceptionally unusual," said Cassandra Crifasi, deputy director of Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence and Research. "We rarely hold people accountable for giving someone a gun who shouldn't have one."
But it's the alleged egregiousness of the couple's behavior that appears to have led to the charges.
Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald on Friday laid out a timeline of chilling events in the days leading up to the shooting, from James Crumbley purchasing the 9 mm Sig Sauer SP2022 semi-automatic pistol just days before it was allegedly used in the shooting, and Jennifer Crumbley posting on social media it was a Christmas present for Ethan.
The day of the shooting, a teacher noticed a disturbing drawing Ethan had made, including "a drawing of a semiautomatic handgun pointing at the words 'the thoughts won't stop help me,'" and a drawing of a bullet with "blood everywhere" written above it, McDonald said.
Then, when called in to the school's office and ordered to get counseling for their son, the couple did not try to determine the whereabouts of the gun, or whether their son had it with him that day, the prosecutor said.
The parents "resisted" taking Ethan from school that day, and he returned to class.
An investigation found the gun was stored in an unlocked drawer in the parents' bedroom, McDonald said.
"They didn't even disclose it at that moment or check to see if their son had that weapon, or go right home and look to see where the weapon was.... We know that because right after the public being notified about an active shooter, Dad drives to his house, and it was for one reason: to look for that weapon. And finds it missing, and then makes a 911 call and says this gun is missing, and I think my son is the shooter," McDonald later told CNN's Anderson Cooper.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/p...-legal-analysts-say/ar-AARrGGj?ocid=Peregrine