Recent headlines from Miami Beach to Renton, Washington, all tell similar tales of armed teen suspects shooting people, some fatally, during robberies, arguments, and other incidents of misbehavior, and the one common denominator that seemingly gets shunted aside by the media and gun prohibitionists is that none of these miscreants were legally armed.
No law anywhere allows people as young as 14 or 15 to carry a concealed handgun. Not even at 17 years of age can any of these characters, who occasionally have criminal records, be legally packing. Politicians who write gun control laws should be frequently reminded of this fact, say many rights activists.
Yet the reaction from editorial writers and anti-gun politicians is almost invariably the same: Crack down on the constitutional rights of adult gun owners. Call sanctions against law-abiding adults either “infringements” or “impairments,” they all amount to the same thing. Honest armed citizens are penalized for crimes they did not commit, nor do they ever condone.
Background checks, waiting periods, training requirements, permits-to-purchase; none of these sanctions against honest gun owners and purchasers have not, and will never, prevent a single criminal, regardless of their age, from getting his or her hands on a gun.
Case in point: Authorities in Renton, a suburb of Seattle—which is headquarters to the billionaire-backed Alliance for Gun Responsibility—have arrested two people, one age 20 and the other 18, in the shooting of a 52-year-old at a Metro bus transit center. According to KOMO News, this shooting culminated an incident which reportedly began when the older man allegedly struck the 20-year-old’s girlfriend with a small PVC pipe. Whether the suspect’s reaction falls within the parameters of the state’s use-of-force/self-defense statute remains to be seen, it still doesn’t explain what the two suspects were doing carrying guns. It’s a sure thing that neither had a concealed pistol license.
Jump across the country to Newark, N.J., where WABC is reporting the arrest and charging of a 14-year-old with murder and attempted murder in relation to the shooting death of a New Jersey police officer. Detective Joseph Azcona with the Newark Police Department was one of two officers apparently investigating “a group of individuals” who allegedly “had illegal firearms.” The 14-year-old was wounded in an exchange of gunfire. He is also facing a charge of possession of illegal weapons, the report stated.
Head south to Myrtle Beach, S.C., where WMBF News says a 17-year-old suspect is “facing multiple charges, including murder” in connection with a fatal shooting at a local restaurant. The suspect reportedly admitted pulling the trigger on an 18-year-old identified as Grayson Meyers, who died of his wounds. The shooting reportedly occurred when the suspect and victim got into a fight inside the restaurant. Again, what was the suspect doing packing hardware?
In Philadelphia, Pa., a 16-year-old from Middletown, Del., reportedly turned himself in after a shooting in the “City of Brotherly Love” which claimed the life of a 15-year-old. According to WPVI News, the teen victim was shot in the neck, chest and shoulder. Identified as Rasheid Lynch, he died at a local hospital.
Authorities in North Miami Beach, Fla., now have in custody a suspect in last year’s fatal shooting during an armed robbery at a South Florida smoke shop. At the time, the suspect was 17 years old. The victim was identified as Salem Albakri, fatally shot in the back during the robbery. The suspect, identified as Taryan Bowens, Jr. was one of four people who entered the smoke shop. Another suspect was arrested last August.
The question arises about where gun-toting teens get their guns, and part of the answer came from the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. CCRKBA, responding to a new report from the Council on Criminal Justice which said there has been a dramatic increase in the number of guns stolen from cars, said researchers overlooked “one major component of the problem: the necessity for legally-armed citizens to leave their firearms before entering so-called ‘gun-free zones.’”
“While the report raises alarms about a 31 percent increase of gun thefts from vehicles,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb in a statement to the media, “it fails to mention a major reason people must leave their firearms in their cars, and that’s the proliferation of ‘gun-free zones’ and ‘sensitive areas,’ all promoted by the same social justice extremists who complain about guns falling into the wrong hands.
“A legally-owned firearm is safest when it is in the possession of its owner,” Gottlieb observed.
The remark has been repeated on social media over the past few days.
“Armed private citizens should never be expected to leave their firearms just to have lunch, attend a meeting or public hearing, handle personal business in a government building, enter churches, synagogues or mosques, or merely to go shopping at a mall or market,” Gottlieb stated.
Perhaps with enough pressure from grassroots activists, local media might be convinced to include details about how teenage gunmen are invariably illegally armed, and make an effort to find out where their guns came from.
Gottlieb got it right when he explained, “No law should ever be allowed to force law-abiding citizens to leave their means of self-defense locked in an automobile. If you want to prevent gun thefts from parking lots and garages, don’t make things easier for thieves. If you want to deter mass shootings in public places, make it possible for people to fight back. If you want to keep guns out of the wrong hands, then allow those guns to be in the right hands.”
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About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms, and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.
