Pa. mom charged with buying son guns


A Pennsylvania mom was charged today with buying her 14-year-old son three guns that he allegedly planned to use in a Columbine-style attack on a local high school.

Michele Cossey, 46, of Plymouth Meeting, Pa., bought her son a .22-caliber handgun, a .22-caliber rifle and a 9 mm semiautomatic rifle, authorities said.

"This is not the best parenting I've ever seen and she needs to be held accountable," Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor said.

Cossey's son is accused of trying to recruit another teen for a possible attack on Plymouth Whitemarsh High School. Investigators said the boy was homeschooled and had never attended the high school, but he apparently felt he had been bullied by his peers.

Acting on a tip from a high school student, police found the rifle, about 30 air-powered guns, swords, knives, a bomb-making book, videos of the 1999 Columbine school massacre in Colorado and violence-filled notebooks in the boy's bedroom, Castor said.

He was arrested Wednesday, the same day a 14-year-old Cleveland boy went on a shooting spree at his high school, wounding four people before killing himself.

The Pennsylvania boy, whose name was withheld because of his age, had a brief appearance in court today, where he was ordered to remain in custody while he undergoes psychiatric evaluations.

His mom was charged with unlawful transfer of a firearm, possession of a firearm by a minor, corruption of a minor, endangering the welfare of a child and two counts of reckless endangerment.

Castor said investigators do not believe she was helping her son plot to attack the school, "but by virtue of her indulgence, she enabled him to get in this position."