13? And they say we don't need gun control...

For those who have not heard of the latest bank robber, it comes out of Peoria, IL and the robber is a 13 boy (and no I am not dyslexic, it is not supposed to be 31). Thirteen, I mean really? I have nephews that are around that age and I cannot imagine them running into a bank with a gun, and demanding money from a teller. In fact, there are some 13 year olds out there who probably still have trouble seeing over the teller counter. Not everyone has hit their growth spurt yet...

The boy didn't get far. Police found him 30 minutes later, literally red-handed from the exploding dye packs they put in the money. The DA is now trying to decide what to do with the boy. They are leaning towards trying him as an adult which can get 30 years in prison. Don't get me wrong, anyone who takes a gun into a bank to threaten another person's life for some money deserves to be punished, but there is a difference between a 13 year old KID and a 40 year old man. Should the kid really spend 30 years in prison for a crime committed when he was 13? A lot of states keep kids locked up through the age of 21, some even 25. That seems like appropriate punishment, but to place a 13 year old boy in the same prisons as murders, abusers, and the like, seems wrong too.

I think the bottom line is that it is obviously a little too east to come across guns. It seems like everyday lately we are hearing about another mass shooting or a gun at school or a hostage situation. Why? I mean, we have identified the problem, why is there no solution. I know there are a lot of arguments out there that if they take guns off the street, the only people that will have them are the criminals, and to a point that is probably true. Yet, I seem to remember hearing about more kids getting in trouble with guns found in their own houses than I do about 12 year olds finding them on the street.