Ron DeSantis says 14-year-old Georgia school shooter was too troubled to have a gun

Image via DeSantis campaign

Florida’s Governor is speaking out against a 14-year-old school shooter in Georgia, saying he never should have had access to a firearm given his own personal troubles and those of his family.

“To have a kid that’s 14, that’s had that much trouble … the FBI was even looking at him the year before, and then to have that parent just give him that rifle when he was too young to have it, but certainly not of proper mind and behavior to have it, that parent is being prosecuted,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said at the Florida Department of Transportation Lake City District Office.

“And look, that was a negligent derelict act on behalf of that parent.”

DeSantis was referring to Colt Gray, who now faces four counts of murder for a shooting earlier this month at Apalachee High School, and Gray’s father, Colin, who gave him access to the semiautomatic weapon used.

“The people that I know who are the most enthusiastic about firearms, they’re the ones that take safety the most serious and (are) going through the rules of how you handle weapons, who should have them and who not,” DeSantis added. “And it seems like that family had a lot of problems and he clearly should not have been allowed to have access to that on his own.”

DeSantis’ comments are just his latest on out-of-state school shootings and other mass murders over the years.

Earlier this year, reacting to an Iowa high school shooting by Dylan Butler, whose social media included LGBTQ+ iconography and messages of support, DeSantis said the shooter was “really hopped up on this gender ideology.”

In the wake of a 2023 mass killing in Maine that saw 18 confirmed deaths, DeSantis said “a lot of these people go in and out of the justice system because of liberal, soft on crime policies.” He also said that bans on weapons like that used by Gray and background checks would “nuke the rights of every law-abiding citizen.”