Officials say a decision is pending on whether to charge the parents of a 13-year-old Parkland, Wash. boy who allegedly threatened a school shooting online. Investigators seized 23 weapons, many unsecured, from the boy’s home.
Washington State has secure-storage and minor firearms possession laws similar to Colorado’s, but which also include a ban on minors possessing assault-style weapons, which Colorado does not have.
Pierce County sheriff’s deputies arrested the teen Saturday after receiving a tip about social media posts where he brandished guns and detailed his desire to kill others, police said. While he referenced a number of previous school shootings, police reports do not identify plans to attack a specific school. He had been home-schooled since 2021, police said.
Prosecutors have charged the teen with three counts of second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm, one count of attempted threat to bomb or injure property, and one count of unlawful possession of fireworks. Whether his parents will be charged is unknown, with a Sheriff’s spokesperson calling it the “big lottery question.” At this point, the spokesperson said, the most they could face is improper storage of firearms.
Under Washington law, those under 18 are barred from possessing firearms except in certain circumstances, including hunting, firearms safety courses, and shooting competitions. Unsafe storage of a firearm is also a crime, which applies when a person barred from having guns accesses one and uses it in a shooting or during the commission of a crime, or displays the firearm in a public place in a way that is intended to intimidate or cause alarm for the safety of others.
