Georgia school shooting suspect previously investigated for threats, FBI says A teenager accused of killing four people at Apalachee High School in Barrow County was previously investigated for threats about a shooting, the FBI Atlanta office said late Wednesday. Colt Gray, 14, was charged with murder after Wednesday’s shooting, according to investigators. He was not charged after an investigation last year. In May 2023, the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center received several anonymous tips about threats to commit a school shooting made on an online gaming site, the FBI and Jackson County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. The threats didn’t identify a school or when it would happen, but they contained pictures of guns. Explore 2 students, 2 teachers killed in Barrow school shooting; 14-year-old in custody Investigators tracked the post to Georgia and to Jackson County, where sheriff’s deputies continued the investigation. A 13-year-old, Colt Gray, was interviewed along with his father, an FBI spokesman said. “The father stated he had hunting guns in the house, but the subject did not have unsupervised access to them,” the FBI said. “The subject denied making the threats online.” The Jackson sheriff’s office alerted local schools at the time, and Gray was monitored, the FBI said. “A thorough investigation was conducted,” Jackson Sheriff Janis Mangum said in a Facebook post. “During the course of this investigation, the gaming site threats could not be substantiated.” No charges were filed, investigators said. “At that time, there was no probable cause for arrest or to take any additional law enforcement action on the local, state or federal levels,” the FBI said. Investigators have not said what type of gun was used in Wednesday’s shooting. “My phone is blowing up with messages from people about social media postings about other possible incidents,” Mangum said. “To my knowledge, there is not a list indicating any of this.” Mangum said her office extended sympathies to all of those affected by the shooting Wednesday. “This is an ongoing investigation at Apalachee,” she said. “Please be mindful of those who have been affected by this tragedy and continue to pray for all involved.”
I turned on the news this morning and am listening to this report and of course there's the obligatory "he was a loner." Then they had a clip from another student and it didn't really support that, and then someone on the panel kind of squelched the loner narrative. And I was just thinking how shallow the thinking is about this stuff. I mean, it's like our hands are so tied and we don't know what to do about it (well, we have some ideas but we don't have the will to really do them) so then it goes right back to trying to put people in little boxes and label them and essentially fear monger about a demographic, in this case, it seems, introverts. Like, what the heck? I've known a lot of violent extroverts. I've seen stories about serial killers, mass shooters and assassins that are painted as "loners" only to find out they weren't really these recluses they've been made out to be. All we're doing, IMO, in this is just creating more mistrust and division and fear and anger which seems to be exactly the kind of thing that does play a role in creating serial killers, mass shooters and assassins. There are simple elements to this, but we do a great job of zeroing in on the wrong simple elements to make the situation even worse.
Our youth are losing thier minds due to the current state of how we run things as a whole. We meaning society. But instead of addressing the core issues, we jsut want to take away the dangerous items. The dangerous item is social media and our instant communication which leads to false headlines which confuses the youth. I know this is not a black and white thing but until the core issue is addressed, which may be impossible at this point, these things will continue to happen. But it starts with parents managing their social media activity. I think smart phones should have an age limit. 18+. until then, flip phones only with little social media access. Get thier heads back into thier surroundings instead of buried in a phone getting manipulated by false and misleading headlines. id vote for a law like that. Regulation exists in almost any self destructive product. Cigarettes alcohol. Pot. Driving, etc. why not an age limit for smart phones?
You should read this book columbine. The media distorts everything when these events happen. The whole trench coat mafia thing was false but it was mentioned by one person in one interview and then became the story
Kids spend too much time on screens for damn sure. I think kids also learn a lot of truth being online too. The issue with social media for kids is it becomes a popularity contest like at school. It becomes a pulpit for bullying. Bullying is a huge issue. It does extend to social media. In school and online kids are being bullied. A lot of shootings stem from this. We need better systems in place to stop this. Parents and school admin/teachers need to nip this shit in the bud. There needs to be better mental health access. Mental health needs to be taken seriously. Parents need to do a better job keeping their guns locked up. These shootings can be prevented. They can be stopped. We have to stop with the bullshit. Thoughts and prayers are a nice sentiment. They aren't a solution. They aren't effective. We have to stop extenuating these shootings by stereotyping shooters so that we can keep lying to ourselves that these are isolated events that are not common place. They are very common place. They are happening more and more. We have to delve deep into this. We have to change the way we are looking at. It can't be oh this was a terrible thing, thoughts and prayers, and then bookmark it away until it happens again. Because it will happen again. It will keep happening until we look at ourselves in the mirror and take action to stop it.
I don't doubt it. It seems like someone thinks we need to make everything bite-sized as an excuse for making the really tough changes like maybe counting to 10 or sleeping on it before saying or doing something cruel to our brothers and sisters. Everything has to be organized in its own nice little box.
We just need to be better people. We need to be better to others. We need to be better to ourselves. A little bit of discipline and kindness seems to be an even harder thing to face than gun laws or social media control.
Yes, trying to blame the individual rather than addressing the system that created (or at least failed to identify and treat) that individual. That's how our leaders make sure that we don't demand better social services. Because in order to do that we would have to take money from their donors and allocated toward universal services. Which would save us all money and give us better results as long as it weren't torpedoed by officials beholden to those private and corporate donors (see measure 110).
Or we could just stop allowing large corporations to control our media. We don't need to restrict individuals. We don't need to blame parents. We need to increase access to education and health care. We need to increase access to social services. We need to improve our social safety net. We need to make sure that kids who are drifting in school get the help that they need. I do not support increased restrictions on all individuals almost as a rule. Unless the restriction improves things for everyone. I know too many kids who have done too many good things because of their access to social media and the internet. Yes I 100% agree that we need limits and that we should educate parents on those limits. But we can't just expect parents to know. And we can't just expect people to limit their kids more than other kids are limited. There are too many social pressures for that to be successful. There's no possible way that you could enforce some kind of a law preventing kids from accessing smart devices. Not while maintaining a free society. You would need authoritarian measures to enforce anything like that. No way will I ever support anything like that. Just increase access to education and services.
Phone control seems even less feasible than gun control. And comparably logical. It still comes down to blaming inanimate objects for the manner in which people misuse them.
Yep. We simply need to help people be healthier and better educated before taking more drastic measures.
A kid can't have access to a gun. They will 'misuse' it every time. You can't kill with a phone. It's not an instrument of death. A gun is. They are two very different things. A gun has one use, a phone has many.
The solution is to find something to replace school shootings as the ultimate way to act out. We need to use the disinformation tools we have to promote an alternative. Make it appear that teenage rebels with nothing to lose volunteer at a nursing home. barfo
Good things to do. But, you can only educate a kid so much. Kids are immature and will make bad choices if the opportunity is there. Kids do stupid shit. They can't always be expected to be responsible for themselves. Parents need to better to keep kids from getting to their guns. They need to treat their kids better so they don't turn into bullies. Parents and teachers alike to need to take bullying and mental health seriously.
I've had access to guns my whole life. Never misused one. And I wasn't what you would call a "responsible" kid. Hundreds of millions of kids have had the same access throughout our history. And even the ones who "don't have access" can easily take their parents key or code and gain access to them You can't have guns available for an emergency and lock them down so nobody can access them. And we very clearly can't all count on police to protect us. Education and access to care is the best answer, IMO.
Glad you didn't shoot up any schools. I'm sure you had good parents. Easy access to guns has perpetuated these shootings. Sure there are a lot of kids out there who have had access and have not misused them, but too many have. Just because it might not work 100% of the time...just because kids might find a way into the gun case, does not excuse parents from the responsibility. If your children take your guns and shoot people you are responsible. Parents can and need to do a better job. Yes, education is great. It certainly makes a difference. But, it's not enough. You don't think these kids who do these shootings don't know these guns aren't safe? They know what these guns do. That's why they use them. Likely, some of those parents had the talk and it made no difference.
Yes. There will always be accidents. Unfortunately that is part of life. I'm not arguing against gun safes or securing guns. I am arguing against a law that would require it. Because it really can't be enforced before the fact and different people have different situations. With better education will come better parental decisions and kids who make better decisions.
