Parents of Evergreen High Shooter Won’t Face Gun Charges: Why the Hell Not?

Quick question. Does anyone even remember the Evergreen High School shooting?

If not, that is understandable. It happened on September 10, 2025, the same day Charlie Kirk was killed, and Evergreen got muscled straight out of the headlines. One dead student, two wounded teenagers, and a shattered community, but cable news had a bigger shiny object to chase. Not to mention a school shooting means it was just another Wednesday in America.

So let’s rewind.

Sixteen-year-old Desmond Holly walked into Evergreen High School in Jefferson County, Colorado, armed with a Smith & Wesson .38 Special revolver. He roamed the halls for about nine minutes, fired in multiple locations, calmly reloading while seriously wounding two students, including Matthew Silverstone, physically grappled with one of them on video, and then killed himself.

Officials later said Holly had been radicalized online. His social media reportedly overflowed with Columbine worship, white supremacist garbage, antisemitic content, and mass-shooter idolization. He posted imagery echoing Columbine just days before the attack, because of course he did.

This was not impulsive. This was not random. This was another teenage boy steeped in violent online subcultures such as the so-called ‘true crime community,’ given access to a gun, and allowed to turn a school hallway into a crime scene.

Now we arrive at the accountability phase. Or rather, the absence of it.

Last week, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office announced that Desmond’s parents will not face criminal charges.

Why?

Because investigators say they could not establish a clean ownership trail beyond the revolver’s original purchaser in Florida in 1966, who is now deceased. Because DNA on the gun did not match either parent. Because the parents’ attorney later told police the firearm was actually a grandparent’s “family heirloom,” stored near the back of a large locked safe.

Yes. The classic heirloom revolver.

The parents’ lawyer claims Desmond likely slipped the gun out while his father was present, possibly during firearm cleaning. Nobody noticed it was gone because it was rarely used. The sheriff’s office ultimately decided there was not enough evidence to pursue charges.

Case closed.

Let’s translate that.

The gun was in the family home. The gun was in the family safe. The gun was accessed by their teenage son. Two students were shot. Their son died.

And the official conclusion is basically, “Well, these things happen”.

We are supposed to accept that a locked safe magically absolves everyone of responsibility, even when the weapon leaves that safe and ends up in a school shooting.

We are also supposed to believe this was completely unforeseeable, despite the shooter’s documented fixation on mass violence and Columbine culture.

Sure.

Here is another detail nobody seems eager to touch.

Where did the ammunition come from?

A revolver does not conjure bullets out of thin air. A sixteen-year-old cannot legally buy handgun ammo in Colorado. So unless Desmond had a secret underground ammunition supply chain, those cartridges came from the same household.

Meaning even if you buy the “heirloom gun slipped out unnoticed” story, you still have a minor accessing live ammunition.

Apparently that does not rise to criminal negligence either.

Now let’s talk about Antioch for a second.

In Tennessee, the mother of the Antioch High School shooter is being charged after police found her DNA on the gun used in that attack and determined she was legally prohibited from possessing firearms.

Same basic facts. Child gets gun. People get hurt. Different outcome. One parent is charged. These parents are not.

And let’s be honest about the elephant in the room. The Antioch shooter’s mother is Black.

Here in Evergreen, we get a press release about heirlooms, locked safes, unfortunate timing, and how nobody could have seen this coming.

In Antioch, prosecutors found a way. I am sure that is purely coincidental.

And let’s not forget who is making this call. The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.

Yes, that Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. The same agency that catastrophically bungled the Columbine investigation, buried evidence, misled families, and spent decades slow-walking accountability.

So forgive me if I do not take their carefully worded statements about “thorough and impartial investigations” at face value.

They acknowledge this “was not the outcome many in our community hoped for.”

No shit.

Because from the outside, this looks less like justice and more like institutional muscle memory. Minimize responsibility. Protect adults. Close the file.

Here is the uncomfortable reality.

If a child can access your gun, your gun was not secured. If a teenager can access your ammunition, your ammunition was not secured. If that child then shoots classmates, something in your household failed catastrophically.

Calling the revolver a “family heirloom” does not change that. Neither does claiming it was rarely used. Neither does blaming a momentary lapse while dad was not looking.

This was not a burglary by a stranger. This was not a gun stolen from a car. This was a firearm inside a home, accessed by a minor, carried into a school, and used to shoot children.

That is not bad luck; that is negligence.

And this is exactly why the whole ‘responsible gun owner’™ myth collapses the moment you put it next to real cases. Responsible ownership did not stop this. Locked safes did not stop this. Family rules did not stop this. Heirloom mythology did not stop this.

A teenager still got a gun, and kids still got shot.

Evergreen did not become less real just because it shared a news cycle with a higher-profile death.

Two students were shot; a sixteen-year-old is dead, and a community is still dealing with the fallout.

Once again, the adults closest to the gun walk away without consequences.

But hey, the sheriff’s office says they tried.

And in America, apparently, that is enough.

(Sources)