Massachusetts’ restrictive gun control laws failed to stop a violent felon from illegally arming himself and opening fire on a busy Cambridge thoroughfare last month, and now the state’s draconian gun laws have once again had a high-profile failure after a pair of juveniles held up a lemonade stand in south Boston run by a pair of youngsters.
The 12-year-old boy and 11-year-old girl were robbed of about $80 on Wednesday afternoon by two masked individuals who are thought to be not much older than their victims.
The police put out a public call Thursday afternoon for information that could lead them to two “unknown” boys, one of whom “displayed a black firearm in his waistband” before the pair grabbed the cash from the lockbox and made a run for it.
The police released surveillance video footage of two boys, one much taller than the other, walking in the middle of a quiet residential street. They said the boys had made “several passes” by the stand before robbing it and had asked if it accepted Apple Pay.
Investigators have received door camera footage from cooperative neighbors, said Ed Flynn, a city councilor representing South Boston.
“There is little I can think of more disturbing than the innocence of a children’s lemonade stand being violated by an armed robbery,” Mr. Flynn said in a statement. “The thoughts of our entire community are with the young children and the families who had to endure this terrible and senseless ordeal.”
The New York Times adds that “Many in the neighborhood couldn’t wrap their heads around why someone would target a pair of young entrepreneurs engaged in a time-honored childhood hustle.”
It’s not all that difficult to understand. This was a crime of opportunity; the two kids, one of whom appears to be several years older than his accomplice, were wandering the streets of South Boston in masks on a hot summer day. My guess is that they were looking for any potential victims when they ran across the lemonade stand, and decided the kids were an easy target.
While Flynn and others are focused on the fact that a lemonade stand was robbed, the bigger issue is that two juveniles apparently had no trouble whatsoever getting ahold of a gun in a state where it takes months to acquire the permission slip necessary to legally keep and carry a firearm. I can understand why Democrat politicians would prefer not to dwell on yet another high-profile incident involving armed individuals who were supposed to be unable to acquire a firearm thanks to the state’s restrictive gun laws, but Massachusetts residents shouldn’t ignore just how easy it is for prohibited persons to arm themselves… and just how difficult it is for lawful citizens to do the same.
Even though police departments are required to issue or deny permit applications within 40 days, it can take six months or more to obtain a license to carry in Boston. And the “license to carry” is actually a license to possess a handgun, so the license is required simply to keep a pistol in your home.
A juvenile caught with a gun will likely get a slap on the wrist for illegally carrying, but an adult who’s busted for carrying without a license faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 18 months in prison. That might not dissuade violent criminals from carrying a gun, but it will stop most folks who simply want to bear arms for self-protection from doing so until they get their government-issued permission slip.
With any luck these young offenders will be caught before long, but it would take a Massachusetts miracle to see them face real consequences for their actions… and for would-be gun owners to be able to exercise their Second Amendment rights in a timely manner.
Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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