What did Jay Jones specifically allege about child involvement and in which statement was it made?

1. What the reporting says Jones allegedly wrote about children

Multiple outlets reporting on stolen screenshots published phrases attributed to Jones in which he not only said “Gilbert gets two bullets to the head” but also expressed a hope that Gilbert’s children would die or that his wife would see a child die so the lawmaker would change his stance; that language was summarized as Jones “hoping his children would die” or fantasizing about them “lying lifeless in their mother’s arms” ^{[1] [4] [2]}. Fact-check and news stories repeated both the “two bullets” formulation and the companion claim about the children, and Republican and some Democratic officials publicly described the messages as Jones wishing violence on the children of a colleague ^{[2] [5]}.

2. Where — the specific statement and who reported it

The central attribution of the child-related language stems from Coyner, who publicly confirmed the authenticity of the exchange and said the August 8, 2022 text conversation included Jones wishing violence on a colleague’s children; Coyner’s confirmation was quoted directly in multiple local and national reports ^{[2] [3]}. National outlets that published the screenshots — and later covered Jones’s acknowledgment and apology — cited Coyner’s account as the on-record source that the texts were genuine and that the child-related line appeared in that August 2022 exchange ^{[6] [7]}.

3. Jones’s own responses and contextual notes from reporting

Jones publicly acknowledged sending the texts after screenshots were published and issued a statement expressing embarrassment, shame and apology, but the reporting records his original words as part of the leaked texts rather than a later verbatim restatement by Jones defending them ^[6]. Some outlets also reported a follow-up phone call in which Jones allegedly elaborated that his comments were attempts to describe how personal pain can drive policy change — for example, that a spouse seeing a child die might change a lawmaker’s mind — a framing reported by National Review and summarized by other press accounts ^[4]. A fact-check noted Coyner’s original Facebook post later became unavailable and recorded Jones’s explanation that he had initially texted the wrong person before continuing the exchange ^[8].

4. How others framed the child-related allegation and political consequences

Across the press cycle, Republican officials and opponents described the texts as Jones “wishing violence on the children” or fantasizing about their deaths, using those formulations in campaign ads and public statements to argue Jones was unfit for office ^{[2] [3] [5]}. Democrats expressed disgust publicly but stopped short of unanimous calls for withdrawal, and some reporting stressed that despite the furor the controversy did not uniformly translate into calls from all party leaders for Jones to leave the ticket ^{[9] [5]}. Independent fact-checking and reporting documented the screenshots, Coyner’s confirmation, Jones’s apology, and the contested context of how the exchange began ^{[8] [6]}.

5. Limits of available reporting and what remains unverified

The core factual thread in the public record is the set of leaked screenshots and Coyner’s confirmation that they came from an August 8, 2022 exchange; beyond that, exact wording, surrounding context and whether Jones’s later explanations change the meaning of the texts are matters the reporting summarizes but does not fully reproduce as a publicly archived primary source ^{[2] [8] [6]}. Therefore the verifiable claim that can be made from the material provided here is that Jones was reported to have written that Gilbert “gets two bullets to the head” and that he expressed hopes or fantasies that Gilbert’s children would die — and that Coyner’s statement attributing those lines to an August 8, 2022 text conversation is the specific on-record attribution in the coverage ^{[1] [2] [3]}.