Tonight, seconddegree murder charges against the father of the georgia school shooter, eject new intensity into the national debate on gun plus the cost of a donald trump win economists say the former president's plans would take money out of american wallets. Also cell block, tango, trump makes a threat to imprison democrats and an indictment, accuses maga influencers of doing the kremlin's work as vladimir putin trolls the world by revealing who he wants to win in 2024 live at the table. Erin green ashley allison shermichael singleton, jamal hill, and brian stelter sure welcome to a special edition of newsnight, state of the race good evening i'm abby phillip in new york. Let's get right to what america is talking about. A potential flashpoint in a national crisis? breaking news tonight, the father of the suspected school shooter in georgia. He is now under arrest and he has been charged with two counts of seconddegree murder, among other things, police say that colin gray gifted his son an ar 15 style rifle for christmas, even after concerns from authorities and he knowingly allowed him to have access to that weapon the 14yearold boy use this gun to kill two of his classmates and two teachers. So we'll accountability like this ultimately be a deterrent in mass shootings here at the table with us in new york last night on this very show, sitting right where you are last night montel williams without knowing any of this, without knowing that this weapon wasn't just in the house, but it was given to this kid. This is what he said sure. Hold these parents more accountable, let's start locking those parents up by 15, 20 years. Then we're going to start seeing at lease responsibility and the gun ownership world that is the question. Tonight. Four counts, not not you know, manslaughter he needs not just manslaughter because he's facing four involuntary manslaughter, but he's also chasing facing murder charges straight up. Murder charges. Will this make a difference? i mean, to be honest, it does in some ways and let me just i don't have kids. Right. Okay. And i'm not saying that you haven't kids are not having kids means that you can't be a part of this conversation, but the part that i worry about the most is whether or not it's a slippery slope. I think in this case, the charges are fair because even if this was the most responsible child of all time, why would buying a military style weapon be a good idea to put in the hands of a 14yearold, any 14yearold. Okay. If they get that straight a's, i don't care if they come home whole time. If they veggies say they prayers, it doesn't matter. That is not the type of weapon that belong in that belongs in at child's hands but i do think that i think about how potentially something like this could be weaponized against the most vulnerable parents. And that's where i get a little bit concerned, but i think in cases of obvious neglect with this, what would happen in the case of michigan? and with the crumbleys and the school shooting there? yes, that makes sense. When you are knowingly putting the selfdestructive things in the hands of children and you know, they have problems as a parent, you have to answer that. I'm just not sure if the blanket answer is all parents need to be responsible for what their children do knowingly part is the key part here because the police came to this family and said we have reports that your son might be plotting an attack on a school, attacked basically like the one that happened. And then months later, you go out and you buy a weapon i put my kids on the bus today was the first day of school and i was thinking to myself, i'm responsible for every aspect of their lives. I'm responsible for how my kindergartener is going to behave in class today. I'm hoping these nice to the fellow kids. I'm hoping that he behaves. I'm hoping is on a bully if i'm responsible for that, then of course i'm responsible for something like this and whether that ends at 17 or 18, or 19, there's interesting discussion to have about exactly what the cutoff is. But for a 14yearold it seems pretty clear. I mean, look, i i just wonder to jamil's point in terms of culpability, does it stop, begin, end with the parents. What about the fbi visited the parents? could they have done more? what about the school's obligation to protect other students should they have done more? what about law enforcement? i mean, there's so many questions here, abby and i get mantel's point, but there are a lot of responsible gun owners in this country. I'm from the south, many people that i know have kids were very young who are competitive shooters, pistol shot guns, ars and there are perfectly responsible, but i don't want to differentiate between the response that you can. I mean i understand what you're saying, but but but but a child i don't know that even a child who is maybe you do competitive shooting or hunting or whatever. I don't know that you could say that child is responsible for what they do with that weapon error scenarios controlled scenario, right? so i want to clarity there. But i'm just simply saying i just don't want to demonize every single person with an ar 15 or would guns generally speaking. But again, back to my original point in terms of culpability, where does it begin? where does it end? and could the other entities involved in this process? did they have done more? i don't think we have an answer to that. I think that that's a really fair point. It's where does the culpability lie and where is the structure for it? because there have been states that have begun to pass some legislation about parents being more responsible for their children's actions. And i think to your point as well, what you are saying is that those most vulnerable my also get caught up in this there. I'm sure there are plenty of parents out there who have been sounding the alarm, begging for help with their children and just not able to access resources to be able to get their children on the right path. My concern as well would be is yes, bear, there'll be a very your record. What however, this legislation is written because i'm sure many many states will begin looking at this more aggressively now, is that you need to be able to set those standards for parents. Is it does it start with your child beat up someone at school. So now you're reliable for the violent act or for violent acts like, where are these lines and these graves? these are always the toughest things to militaries will decide that's what worked the crumbley case. But the jury is do you still go after black mothers who have young sons who may find themselves in trouble in the street, do prosecutors, mostly white, so are going after them because i would have a problem with that. Now where this party lived through that, when black families are prosecuted under the notion of the dysfunctional family. So we've seen that happened and it doesn't work in an effective way i don't think we can talk about this in like an isolated solution. I'm a former teacher. If i knew and i taught special education and i had children that were emotionally disturbed. And if i had known that one of my parents bought one of my children a gun and i call them my children because they were my students i would be terrified. I will be calling that to even know that they'd nobody knew that. But for a parent to do that for a child that has already been brought saying that if you listen to the audio, the father says, i'm off to know that my son was talking about a school shooting. So if you're off to know that your son is talking about a school shooting. I'm off that you bought him the gun and the parents now have we have parents who will never see their children. Again, we have a whole 2000 students who were traumatized, probably for the rest of their life with ptsd. If you listen to the students that many of our anchors were in, reporters were interviewing, they were trembling with fear, just having to relive that. But i don't think it's just about the parents being responsible i think that instance this is the right case, and i think the crumbley case was the right decision by do they have an ar 15 and this goes back to why don't we have more mental health services. We always want to go to a oneshot solution versus what using the word poorly but a one stop solution when we know that these issues are more complicated and i've just i've been thinking a lot about like, what would i do if i was alive 50 years ago. But i also think like, what will people think about as in 100 years when they see children year after year after year getting murdered in schools and u. S. Arguing about whether or not we should have taken the weapons away from them i just ask, i wonder what the answer was going to play? what j. D. Vance, the republican nominee, nominee for vice president, said about this when he was asked earlier tonight the kamala harris answer to this is to take law abiding american citizens guns away from you've got some states with very strict gun laws and you've got some states. They don't have strict gun laws at all and the state's was strict gun laws. They have a lot of school shootings and the states without strict gun laws, some of them have school shootings to so clearly strict gun laws is not the thing that is gonna solve this problem. Well, that's quite an answer you know and that's probably the part of the general apathy of this. Like we have become nation of like what we just can't do anything. We, you know, we have more guns twice as many guns as people hear. That's that's the reality of where we are to your point it's like when you think about if you're in a time capsule when you look back now at this time and what we would have done, the answer would have been nothing that were just spinning the inertia. First of all, vice president harris didn't say she wanted to take all the guns away, so he started with a lab right away and people think the slightest bit of regulation, like can we all agree not a good idea they're under 18 to have an assault rifle. Not a good idea. Don't care who you are. It is not a good idea to do this. Are very simple things that i think i'd like to thank the rational part of our brains would say it's probably not good that you can purchase a highly powerful weapon before you can actually vote by alcohol and before you can actually drive a car like what this does that make what we're just a small isn't really a republican, but i take but you can't the parents would have to buy the weapon for the child if it wasn't for the fact that that is even possible, just seems like just little things. Nobody's asking that we've lost the battle in terms of coming into every home and taking never gun and i don't think that's just a common sense solution. Anyway, it's just small things. The fact in georgia, i believe in you can correct me if i'm wrong. The fact that the police already were flagged about his behavior would've been a red flag law i get that point about red flag laws, but also gmail, there's some data that suggests red flag laws disproportionately impact black men and i wouldn't want someone because they're afraid of a black person who lives across the street from them, call the police and all of a sudden the judge is saying there's a black man. You need to go and take his guns away. That likely is it going to work out very well? well for that black man or that black woman would that a black family. So i do have some concerns there. I get the point. The vice president isn't saying what you just said though. From what i have seen, i have seen a blanket removal of all ar 15s. I personally would not be in support of that. I think our history in this country shows me that any weapon that we have access to, we should have have a right to those weapons to defend ourselves. So that will be a counter on the counter argument that people who support assault weapons ban make is that there's already been one. And in the period of time when there was one, these types of crimes didn't have the effective it was very effective way they are 15s, but violence with pistols continued and most of most people and most murders in the country occur with a pistol, not with i understand that point. In fact like i really i don't own a gun. I go back and forth about whether or not i'm going to buy a gun i think people i believe in the second amendment what, who is using an ar 15 to but to protect themselves at this point, it's actually there is the most popular hunting rifle in the country for hunter. But you're asking if we use it no. Protect themselves well, that i just me on that, but it is an incredibly popular hunting rat. I mean, it's an people, weapon and some of it is almost like some of it is the allure of the powerful but do however, i grew up, people have their home for protection. I mean, i don't want to go in this direction. Kids were killed, but people do use them in their homes for protection. Just a shot guns. If you have a wife is a lot easier for a woman to use an ar 15 to protect herself. She's home alone versus a pistol which requires a ton of skills or a shotgun which is a lot more difficult for a woman to be able to control our in a small environment so there is a u. S. Purpose for a home. Why and make again, proved me wrong but the stories of the wife protecting herself from domestic violence is not about ar 15. The story is that the children are being blown away and we don't even get to sometimes recognize their bodies because those weapons are so aggressive and violent. And i guess i just sometimes like i like to eat cake. Right. But i can't take every day because it's not good for me, so i don't eat cake. And so like maybe having an ar 15 because it's not a weapon that is going to keep our children safe. Maybe it's like maybe we can give some things up for the greater good of our children to keep to keep should i not have a right to own they are 50 i don't get right so you don't think i need one, so that means i should just give it up. I don't think anybody needs one. Yeah. We just want to agree on that then. I would rather those kids and teachers be alive. Then you have an ar 15. And quite honestly i think their lives are more surfers. Now they're, i'll say it again. I mean the word we're talking here as if it is unheard of that these weapons could be banned, but it has happened in this very country before i know what i noticed that the second amendment didn't go away when forget but i but ashley, you were saying but what i remember the difference because i was in high school when columbine happened the first school shooting that really led to the banning of ar 15s and that there were people who took leadership across the aisles and realize that some of our greatest indulgence don't need to be satisfied if they keep children safe yes, guys we have to leave it there. Everyone stay with me coming up next. We've got more breaking news. 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