One day after the fatal shooting at Apalachee High School In Winder, Georgia, authorities are releasing more information about the weapon used in the incident that two students and two teachers and nine others injured.

The suspected shooter, Colt Gray, was the last to a type of weapon that has often been used in mass shootingsincluding the deadly school shootings in Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and mass shootings in a Buffalo, New York, supermarket and on the Las Vegas Strip.

Here’s what you should know about the weapon that authorities say was stolen by the 14-year-old suspectwho is accused of quadruple murder.

What weapon was used in the Georgia school shooting?

Authorities said on Wednesday that the weapon used by the suspect was a AR-style platform rifle. Based on the AR-15 design, these weapons are lightweight, semi-automatic rifles that are popular with consumers. Although they are often referred to as “assault rifles” — a term that gun advocates believe is misleading — “AR” stands for ArmaLite, the company that developed the original AR-15.

The high-velocity ammunition of these weapons can Crushing bonesBut Thousands are sold every year.

How did the suspected Georgia shooter get the gun?

CBS News has learned that police and federal agents in connection with the incident in Winder, Georgia, are investigating whether the suspect received the weapon as a gift from his father, Colin Gray, in December 2023, according to four federal sources familiar with the investigation.

The 54-year-old father was arrested on Thursday According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, he is charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and child abuse.

“These charges stem from Mr. Gray knowingly allowing his son, Colt, to possess a firearm,” GBI Director Chris Hosey said at a press conference Thursday evening.

During an investigation in 2023 in online threats of a shootingLocal police spoke with the suspect’s father, who said, according to incident reports obtained by CBS News, that he, the father, owned hunting rifles, but the teenager did not have unsupervised access to them.

Are these guns legal in Georgia?

Georgia law prohibits minors from owning handguns, but there is no minimum age to own a rifle or shotgun in Georgia. The state also has few restrictions on adults who want to carry firearms.

Under both state and federal law, the teen should not have purchased a pistol, rifle or shotgun. According to the Giffords Center, people in Georgia must be at least 18 years old to purchase a pistol, while federal law requires the same minimum age for purchasing shotguns and rifles, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

Is there a lot of gun violence in Georgia schools?

Over the past decade, Georgia ranked 10th in the nation in the number of gun violence on school campuses per 100,000 residents and 16th in the number of fatal school shootings per capita, according to a CBS News Analysis from data from the K-12 School Shootings Database and population estimates from the 2020 U.S. Census.

What are the gun laws in Georgia?

Adults in Georgia do not need a permit to purchase rifles, shotguns or handguns, nor are they required to register their firearms with the government. Additionally, a permit is not required to carry rifles and shotguns, according to the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action.

In 2022, Georgia passed a law allowing the carrying of a gun without a permit, eliminating the need for a license, fingerprinting, and background check to carry concealed weapons in public.

According to a CBS News analysis, Georgia’s laws are among the least stringent in the country.

Is there a red flag law in Georgia?

Extreme risk protection orders, commonly referred to as “Red Flag” Lawsallow a court to order the temporary confiscation of a person’s guns if they pose a threat to themselves or others. Twenty-one states have passed such laws, but Georgia is not one of them, according to Everytown, a gun safety advocacy group.

Georgia state Rep. Gabe Okoye, a Democrat whose district is near Winder, told CBS News that a red flag law in Georgia could have prevented the shooting at Apalachee High School.

“If we had a red flag law, I don’t think this would have happened because the child had been flagged several times before,” he said.

In some states, family members can apply for protection orders in cases of extreme danger. In other states, applications can only be made by law enforcement. Applications made by law enforcement usually succeed before the judge, says April Zeoli, an associate professor at the University of Michigan who studies these laws, and the court can order that guns be removed from the home or stored securely inside or outside.

Applications submitted by family members are more likely to have problems getting approval because “it is easier for law enforcement to understand the entire process than for civilians because they know what counts as evidence and what does not,” Zeoli said.

How successful are red flag laws in preventing mass shootings?

Zeoli is leading a six-state study – the largest in the U.S. – of extreme-risk protective orders. Preliminary data the research team compiled on about 6,500 cases in states including Michigan, Vermont and Florida showed that about 3% of those orders were issued in cases involving juveniles, Zeoli said. About 10% were issued in cases where people had threatened mass shootings, and the majority of extreme-risk protective orders were issued because of suicide risk or mental health issues.

“We know that extreme protective orders during mass shootings are not associated with subsequent mass shootings,” Zeoli said. “These people don’t go on to commit mass shootings.” But she cautioned that it remains difficult to quantify whether the extreme protective orders prevented the shooting or whether other factors played a role.

Law enforcement locally also faces challenges, said Christopher Carita, a Fort Lauderdale police detective who investigates threats of mass gun violence and other cases requiring a strict protection order. He said he has investigated about 30 cases involving juveniles and that using a petition “can change lives one to two years later.”

Mass shootings in which four or more people are killed or injured account for only a small fraction of the number of firearm deaths and injuries at schools in the U.S. More than 75 percent of the deaths and 68 percent of the injuries occur in incidents that are not classified as mass shootings and do not attract as much attention, according to the School Shootings in Grades K-12 Database.

Sarah Metz and Grace Manthey contributed to this report.