MONTGOMERY, Ala. — On Wednesday, Alabama state legislators voted against a proposed bill that aimed to hold parents criminally accountable if their child brought an unsecured firearm to school. This decision contrasts sharply with a growing trend nationwide where parents of school shooters face prosecution for their roles in such incidents.
Sponsored by Democratic Representative Barbara Drummond from Mobile, the bill was framed as a response to promote school safety rather than as a strict gun control measure. Under the proposed legislation, parents could face up to one year in jail for not properly securing their firearms—defined as using a trigger lock, lockbox, or a safe that requires combinations or fingerprints—prior to their child taking a gun to school.
The House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee ultimately rejected the bill, with the vote falling along party lines. Republican members expressed their support for the overall goal of the bill but argued that it would unfairly dictate how individuals store their firearms, placing an unreasonable obligation on parents.
Representative Ginny Shaver from Leesburg articulated her concern, noting, “My basic opposition to this particular bill is that it applies a criminal offense to someone based on another person’s actions.” Despite the prevailing legal landscape making it uncommon for parents to be prosecuted when minors commit shootings, some recent high-profile cases have challenged this norm.
In Georgia, a father faced second-degree murder charges earlier this year after his 14-year-old son was implicated in a school shooting. Similarly, Michigan parents Jennifer and James Crumbley were sentenced last year to a minimum of ten years in prison as the first parents convicted in a mass school shooting for failing to secure their firearm and neglecting signs of their son’s mental health struggles prior to the 2021 tragedy.
The Alabama bill gained fresh scrutiny in February when a second-grade student in Huntsville accidentally discharged a firearm that was in his backpack during school hours. Additionally, the committee did advance a different measure aimed at increasing penalties for making threats to commit a school shooting following a series of such threats that emerged last year.
Drummond, who identifies as a gun owner herself, expressed strong feelings about gun safety during the bill’s discussion, sharing her commitment to keeping firearms away from her foster child during his teenage years. After the bill’s defeat, she remarked, “I hope none of our children die because of this.”
