Lori Falce: Crumbley verdict and respect for guns
Feb. 9—On Wednesday, a Michigan jury found Jennifer Crumbley guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of four students at Oxford High School in 2021.
She was found guilty despite never firing a shot. She didn't load a weapon. She didn't aim. She wasn't even at the school when it happened.
And it was absolutely the right verdict.
Crumbley's son, Ethan, was the shooter. He was 15 at the time. The shooting occurred five days after Thanksgiving. It was four days after the Black Friday sale where his father, James, bought the 9-mm Sig Sauer handgun for a teenager too young to drive. James Crumbley's criminal trial comes in March.
The case is exactly the kind of thing that should bring together the gun rights and gun safety sides.
James Crumbley had every right to buy a gun. He had every right to teach his son to use it — with reasonable and responsible supervision. Jennifer Crumbley was free to buy the 100 rounds of ammunition for that gun and to take her son to a legal gun range — where he was, again, responsibly supervised.
But involuntary manslaughter is a charge that is defined less by what happened than it is by what didn't. And a jury found Jennifer Crumbley could have — and should have — done so much more.
The school tried to get her to realize Ethan had problems on multiple occasions. The day before the shooting, he was looking for ammunition online at school. Administration alerted the parents. Jennifer Crumbley's response was to tell her son to be better at not getting caught.
On the day of the shooting, the parents were called in again when Ethan diagrammed his plans in a drawing.
"The thoughts won't stop. Help me. My life is useless," he wrote on his math paper.
The school encouraged the couple to take him home. They refused. Hours later, Ethan — who had brought that Sig Sauer to school — opened fire.
If Jennifer Crumbley had helped her son obtain fentanyl that he then distributed to classmates who subsequently overdosed, she would be charged accordingly. It is fair and just to hold her just as accountable for the violent deaths attributable to her negligence.
That is why gun rights advocates should celebrate this verdict. It does not restrict anything. It demands accountability.
I grew up in a home with guns. I first held a gun at around 6 years old, shooting it in a kind of homegrown range on private property. My stepfather held it with me, making sure I understood the forceful kick and the terrible power. Respect and responsibility with guns was the highest rule in our house. It still is.
My siblings and I learned guns are not toys. In fact, it was required we treat toy guns as if they were real, never pointing them at a person. Our own children have played by the same rules because they are the bare minimum that should be required if you have deadly weapons in your home.
Some argue Jennifer and James Crumbley have been overcharged in holding them accountable for the crimes of their son. I would argue there is a charge that was missed: child abuse.
Jennifer Crumbley has been convicted of her part in the deaths of four kids. James Crumbley's day in court is still to come. But where is the accountability for what they did to Ethan in placing a gun in his hand but never imparting the respect to be responsible for it?
Lori Falce is the Tribune-Review community engagement editor and an opinion columnist. For more than 30 years, she has covered Pennsylvania politics, Penn State, crime and communities. She joined the Trib in 2018. She can be reached at lfalce@triblive.com.
