Fifteen-year-old Adam Guzzetti was arrested at his home after authorities connected him to a post he made while logged into a video game chat platform. He was threatening to kill at least seven of his classmates with his father’s assault rifle. Another user alerted the FBI, where agents were able to track the internet protocol address to Guzzetti’s actual residential address.

During the 1:00 a.m. raid Guzzetti’s mother admitted that she keeps a gun in the house but denied that Guzzetti had access to it. In a video of the arrest, Organ lamented that she understood the response from law enforcement, but that her son was still just a child.

The sheriff’s office wrote in a Facebook post “Joke or not, these types of comments are felonies under the law. After the mass violence we’ve seen in Florida and across the country, law enforcement officers have a responsibility to investigate and charge those who choose to make these types of threatening statements.”

At the time of arrest, Guzzetti was the fifth Floridian to be arrested for making similar terrorist threats in the two weeks since assailants in El Paso, TX and Dayton, OH gunned down a combined 31 people.

Potential Preaching Angle: Joking is no excuse for malicious threats; all of us are held accountable for the words we say and the effects they have on others.

Source: Nicholas Muhoro, “Florida Teen Arrested For Making Online Mass Shooting Threats” International Business Times (8-20-19)