On May 18, 17-year-old Dimitrios Pagourtzis, a student at Santa Fe High School, killed ten and wounded 13 with two guns which were legally obtained by his father and kept in a closet in the family home. The teenage shooter also made several different types of explosive devices, some of which were in the school, others at home and in a vehicle.
The shooter confessed to authorities, despite having written in journals about wanting to commit the crime and wanting to kill himself. Authorities have charged Pagourtzis with capital murder.
Christopher Stone and Rosie Yanas' 17-year-old son, Chris, was one of the victims in the shooting. On Thursday, they filed a lawsuit in Galveston County claiming that Pagourtzis' parents did not get mental health counseling for their son and did not warn the school about the boy's "dangerous propensities." Before the shooting, Pagourtzis posted a picture of himself on social media wearing a T-shirt with the words, "Born to Kill," a shirt he was also seen wearing on the day he commited his atrocities.
Under Texas law, guns cannot be handled by children under 17, except under certain exceptions including hunting or with parental or adult supervision. If a child causes injury or death by a gun, the parents of that child can be charged with a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year behind bars as well as a meagre $4,000 in fines
The incident in Sante Fe, Texas, is the most recent in a series of deadly shootings at US schools, including a massacre at a high school in southern Florida in February in which a former student killed 17 people with an assault rifle that was purchased legally.
On Friday, a group of Santa Fe High School students urged for stricter home gun storage laws during an event organized by March For Our Lives, which was established after the February shooting in Parkland, Florida.