, Columnist
Prosecuting Parents Won’t Stop School Shootings
The US has to do something to curtail the horror of gun violence. But is sending the gunman’s parents to jail the right something?
Every parent’s worst nightmare.
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Did the parents of Dimitrios Pagourtzis, who as a teenager in 2018 shot and killed 10 people at a Texas high school, bear any responsibility for his crime? Earlier this week, a jury found they owed no damages to the families of the slain. That would seem to be the end of that.
Some observers immediately pointed out that the outcome of the civil case makes criminal charges against Antonios Pagourtzis and Rose Marie Kosmetatos less likely. The context suggests that this result might be lamentable.