Thanks to California’s gun control laws, peaceable residents hoping to exercise their right to keep and bear arms face a lot of barriers. And thanks to the Democratic supermajority in Sacramento, every year the state’s gun laws get a little (or in some cases, a lot) worse in terms of respecting or even acknowledging our fundamental right to armed self-defense.

And yet, despite the host of impositions and infringements on the Second Amendment, those who choose to illegally possess a firearm or to use one to commit a crime have no trouble doing so, even when they’re not old enough to buy one.

A 14-year-old was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of having a ghost gun near Montgomery High School in Santa Rosa, the second time this year they were arrested for having a firearm near a school, authorities said.

Detectives following a lead from a robbery investigation found the suspect around 9 a.m. Wednesday sitting in a car with a man at the Montgomery Village Shopping Center, within 500 to 1,000 feet from the entrance of Montgomery High School, Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Juan Valencia said Thursday.

The minor was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of conspiracy and multiple firearm charges, including possessing a loaded firearm and not being the registered owner of the gun, according to a Facebook post by the Sheriff’s Office.

The minor also was accused of robbery from a separate case Sept. 21, in which they and other individuals allegedly stole a “large amount” of vape pens and alcohol from a Santa Rosa market , according to the Sheriff’s Office.

Detectives had identified the 14-year-old as a suspect in the robbery based on surveillance footage from the store, Valencia said.

As it turns out, this isn’t the first time that the teen has had a run-in with the law. Less than a month before allegedly taking part in the robbery of the market in Santa Rosa, the teen had been arrested for having a handgun on the grounds of a local high school.

In that incident, deputies were dispatched to the school on the report of a kid with a gun. When police arrived to the scene, they found the now 14-year-old, along with a 12-year-old and 23-year-old in a white Jeep Patriot leaving the school’s parking lot.

The deputies stopped the vehicle on Ursuline Road and found a ghost gun with a 30-round magazine on the floorboard, the Sheriff’s Office said.

All three were arrested at the time and charged with a variety of offenses, including possession of a high-capacity magazine, carrying a concealed firearm permit, possession of a “ghost gun”, as well as having a firearm and committing gang activity on school grounds.

Despite the laundry list of offenses, the 14-year old must not have spent much time in custody before being released given that he was out of juvenile detention when the robbery took place on September 21st.

“Ghost” guns. Possessing a gun near a school. Possessing a “large capacity” magazine. Aren’t these supposed to be serious crimes in California? It doesn’t seem like that’s the case, at least when it comes to 14-year old suspected gang members. Be an otherwise legal gun owner who runs afoul of any of the state’s anti-Second Amendment laws, on the other hand, and you’re likely to be zealously prosecuted… at least in the progressive parts of the state like Sonoma County.

Seems kinda backwards, doesn’t it? What would happen if the state ensured that there were consequences when teenagers were caught making egregiously bad decisions like carrying a gun on school grounds while at the same time protecting the right of responsible adults to keep and bear arms in self-defense? We’ll probably never know, because even if California is forced by courts to reluctantly recognize that the Second Amendment is a real thing the state has enough far-left D.A.’s to see to it that youthful offenders rarely see the inside of a jail cell no matter the severity of their crimes.