Parents, politicians and the religion of the gun

I keep thinking of the video of Colin Gray, rocking back and forth as the charges against him are being read in a room filled with the bereaved loved ones of those his son has been charged with murdering.

It’s a wrenching scene, the father’s agonized realization that his entire world has exploded. But it’s the mother holding a stuffed animal on the front row and the other family members of the two students and two teachers who were murdered last week at Apalachee High School in Winder who most obviously deserve sympathy.

By all accounts, Gray did more than enough to be held accountable for the actions of his son. This will be only the second case of a parent being charged for a school shooting committed by their child, and the charges are much greater. The couple convicted in the Michigan case are serving a 10-year sentence, while Gray is looking at a maximum of 180 years.

If he’s found guilty of what he’s accused of, that severe sentence seems just. As long as school shootings continue, the parents of the shooters can’t be held blameless if they could have done something to prevent the mayhem. Or if they actively promoted it.

But if the prosecution brings up how Gray gave his son a semiautomatic rifle for Christmas only months after being questioned by police about disturbing reports about the boy, will the defense be allowed to introduce photos of politicians, like Rep. Thomas Massie or Rep. Lauren Boebert, who have posed with their heavily armed families around Christmas trees? If politicians can give their kids assault rifles for protection and to teach them self-reliance, why shouldn’t we expect a divorced dad trying to undo the mistakes he’s made raising his son to do the same?

We talk a lot about the politics of guns without gaining much enlightenment from the conversation. The same political patterns recur after every mass shooting, only in shorter cycles. Maybe it’s time to talk more about the religion of the gun.

Around the world, you can often tell a person’s religion by the names they were given at birth: Peter, Mohamed, Moses, and many more. Colin Gray’s son was named Colt. Colt is a famous gun manufacturer, and Colt Gray is a general term for the shade of paint often seen on assault rifles.

Religions often grow out of existing religions, taking on very different forms. So we might want to take a second look at those Christmas tree photos and ponder what it means to associate guns with a powerful religious symbol. And what kind of subconscious message might it send to a voter struggling to find order and peace in his life?

Gray and his wife Marcee appear to have been on an upward path when they bought a small farm in Barrow County and had Colt, their firstborn, although when they split up, she said he had been abusive for years. A series of back surgeries and the addition to painkillers that came with them sent both on a downward spiral. Their breakup was both acrimonious and multi-generational, judging from what the grandparents have had to say.

In desperate straits like these, people will often reach out for something they can believe in, and it appears Colin Gray had faith in guns more than just about anything else. It was a conviction so strong that months after being interviewed about Colt threatening to shoot up a school, he gave him an assault rifle to teach him responsibility and perhaps convey some kind of confidence in him. That, fundamentally, is a hideous form of religion.

The vast majority of gun owners don’t belong to the religion of the gun. They may go to a gun range and contribute heavily to Second Amendment organizations, but they already have religions or reject them altogether. It would be a mistake for them not to be aware, however, that particularly among the most unstable in society, guns have become a substitute and not an accompaniment to traditional religious faith. A lot of political messaging has contributed to this.

It only took three days for another shooter in Kentucky to move media attention to another location, leaving a little town in Georgia that didn’t deserve this kind of heartache.