Should parents be held liable if their child perpetrates a mass shooting?

In the article you referenced, if I am remembering correctly, the mom said her son was sad so they bought him a gun to cheer him up. The parents armed their son with an instrument of death. And whether they thought it through or not, he could have taken the gun to kill himself or others. Either way, they let him loose.
Each case should be looked at separately, but I think in this case, the parents should have been liable, and were, for the son’s actions.

I agree with @chyna, each case should be looked at separately.

I’d just make it illegal for kids to own guns, which would make the parents liable in many circumstances. This case absolutely opens up the legal possibility that many acts of parental negligence will be held criminally liable, but maybe it should? This case at least creates a high hurdle of negligence for prosecution.

Absolutely yes, along with the store that sold the gun and the manufacturer.

The whole point of a firearm is to kill people. Any civilian /no LEO involved in someone using a firearm for its intended purpose should be prosecuted.

As a general rule? No. People are responsible for their own actions.

If the parent exhibited extreme negligence essentially created the circumstances that allowed the shooting to happen, which was entirely foreseeable, then absolutely hold them accountable.

I agree with @gorillapaws. I’m not sure in this case of the state requirements, but here everyone is required to take a course, Hunters Education, with safety, gun care, proper handling and ethics. All free at our conservation offices for all ages.

We had guns unlocked my entire life (and alcohol) and it never crossed my mind to touch them, let alone cause harm, with them. I think in this MI case it was a just verdict.

Not with just those two facts.

If the gun was just lying around then yes.

If the parents have a gun fetish, with a house full of gun propaganda, they should be charged.
If the parents ignore warning signs from their incel son, they should be charged.
(The warning signs are almost always present: Fascination with Guns and Knives and/or Oriental Weapons. Fascination with prior shootings. Participation in anti-social message boards. Disturbing/violent drawings. An Enemies List. SSRI prescription use. )
In some cases, there’s no way the parents would know about their psycho son. But in most cases they know. They may be in denial. But they know.

^^ “SSRI prescription use” Huh?!?!

No, not simply because they are the parents. If they aided their child they should be held to the law just like a non-relative. This trend of trying to hold parents responsible for their children’s acts is dangerous and non-American.

I think @Kraigmo described the possible situations in which they should be blamed perfectly. Except for the SSRI use, which I don’t understand at all and makes no sense.

When parents (or anyone) breaks the law, allowing a crime to occur, they should be held at least partially responsible for the resulting acts. This includes acts of negligence (leaving the gun loaded and/or available), and willful disregard of the law (providing a firearm illegally).

What shouldn’t happen is to presume culpability of the parents and non-culpability of the perpetrator. It’s an extreme case where parenting can literally cause criminal activity, and we can’t go around criminalizing generically bad parenting. In the end, we have to be responsible for our own personalities and actions. Continuing to treat young adults like children isn’t useful either.

@smudges , The emotions that teen boys go through are often not compatible with the effects of SSRIs. SSRIs can create rage in teen boys, even while reducing anxiety and depression at the same time.
In 50 years, science will probably discover that even opiates are safer than SSRIs for preventing depression, far as teen boys go.
Here’s a letter written by Matt Powell who made a list of many teen shooters who were on SSRIs. It’s quite possible that most teen shooters are on such drugs. Not all that info is publicly available yet
https://www.cga.ct.gov/asaferconnecticut/tmy/0128/Matt%20Powell%20-%20Manchester%20CT.pdf

If the gun came from their house, then yes. Absolutely.

@Kraigmo Your link doesn’t work, but I trust that it’s what you say it is.

What I’m finding is a mixed bag. SSRIs don’t cause violence directly, they cause something called “activation”, which is disinhibition, impulsivity, insomnia, restlessness, hyperactivity, and irritability. I’m guessing that if anything, violence/aggression comes from how the teen deals with these symptoms, which also includes experience, parental relationships, relationships with others in general, and genetics among other contributors.

So I’m not saying you’re wrong, I am saying it’s not as simple as teen + SSRI = violence.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5828909/

For someone to convince me of the causal link between SSRIs and teen shooters, I’d need to see why it wasn’t the depression itself that was the factor and that the SSRI and the shooting were both byproducts of the depression. In other words, I imagine all of the teen shooters were wearing men’s underwear also. It’s unlikely that the men’s underwear caused the shootings, but the fact that young men tend to wear underwear and also tend to commit shootings at a higher rate than young women is the relevant datapoint.

@gorillapaws
Same when people try to connect violent video games to a shooting. Every single time.
I mean, I play violent video games all the time, and I have not even been caught yet.

@gorillapaws For many children and teens, antidepressants are an effective way to treat depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder or other mental health conditions.

So to muddy the waters, it’s not just depression for which they’re taken. I’ve been taking them for years due to bipolar disorder which leans to the side of depression. I agree with the underwear analogy. It’s like saying all serial killers were abused – not all have been, just as all who have been abused are not serial killers. It’s not a simple cause/effect issue. SSRIs may be a contributing factor but the jury is still out. A list of young shooters who were taking SSRIs is just that – a list of those who were.