Quote Originally Posted by Bailey Guns View Post
They're 11 and 13. Sure, they should know better, no question about that. But how many 11 and 13 year old kids have the mental maturity level to NOT make stupid decisions on practically a daily basis? And so what if patrons are armed? This is a trespass to a vehicle...not a robbery. Would you expect one of the patrons to shoot two kids because they're stealing stuff from a car?

Obviously the kids made some really poor choices. But, leaving guns in your car and not locking it? Imagine the civil suit the gun owner would be facing if he'd left one of the guns loaded and one of the kids shot themselves...or someone else. He made a really serious mistake that could have cost him far more than the loss of two guns and a knife.
I dunno...at 11 and 13 I wasn't going around parking lots seeing if people left their car doors unlocked so I could lift weapons. At that age, I may, or may not have toliet papered a friend's house but I think there is a big difference. Both are pretty immature, but stealing shows serious disrespect for other people's property and a serious lack of moral guidance. Everything has a scale of grey and nothing is black and white but I think this went over the line and the fault lies with the kids and their parents. I think we should lay the blame with those who showed intent.

As for gun owner, yeah, he can share some fault but, has anybody here ever accidentally left their sliding glass door in the back yard unlatched? How about a ground floor window open in the summer time? Anybody ever watch your garage door going down as you pulled out the driveway only to return later to see that it is up? I have and I know we don't live in mayberry anymore so I kick myself when I accidently do something like that. The guy could be full of it, but he said that he intended to lock it. His hands were just full of things. Going to an indoor gun range, only wanting to make one trip and his hands were full....I'm shocked! I'll be honest-right now, there is a slight chance my car is unlocked. I had quite a few papers in my hand and my lunch when I left it in the work parking lot. Guess what...if someone went through it, they would find a knife. Granted it's a leatherman I leave in there, but it's still a weapon.

IMHO, and again, just my opinion, the truly sad thing is these kids were 11 and 13. ELEVEN and THIRTEEN!!! These kids weren't even old enough to drive. They should be doing after school sports or boy scouts or something. Instead they learned this type of behavior and they didn't just learn it the day prior.

I guess what this really says is we live in sad times where kids this young are hooligans and that we should all take a second or two more to make sure our stuff is secured and locked up tight.