Some criminals are a special kind of stupid. Some are just thoroughly evil, but that doesn’t make them less stupid.

Take, for example, the case Donovan Jevonte Richardson in Raleigh, NC who is on trial for a double homicide. He also reportedly put photographs of himself holding guns he stole in another crime.

Less than two hours after two longtime friends were gunned down in a Fuquay-Varina house in 2014, the accused killer posted a picture on social media of his hand clutching a World War II “Tommy” gun that was stolen from the victims’ home, prosecutors say.

Howard Cummings and Matt Lively, Wake County prosecutors, say Donovan Jevonte Richardson, 24, of Holly Springs, was armed with a Glock .9 mm handgun in the early morning hours of July 18, 2014 when he and Gregory A. Crawford of Fuquay-Varina busted out a basement window to enter Arthur Lee Brown’s home at 236 Howard Road in Fuquay-Varina.

A third accomplice, Kevin Bernard Britt of Holly Springs, waited outside in a Toyota truck for the burglars.

…

Crawford last year was sentenced to life in prison. Britt has not gone to trial, but has been cooperating with investigators. Richardson could face the death penalty if he is convicted of first-degree murder.

Prosecutors think the three men were also responsible for a similar burglary a little more than two weeks before on July 3 at a nearby home on Wagstaff Avenue. A man who rented the home, Kevin Kizer, testified this week that his cousin was held at gunpoint by two armed men who took his AR-15 and AK-47 weapons and a pit bull puppy named “Polo.”

The three men were not arrested until early August. Before they were taken into custody, Richardson used Britt’s cell phone to advertise the guns for sale on Facebook Messenger, prosecutors say.

I get that people these days are pretty plugged into social media, but how stupid do you have to be to take photos of yourself with the stolen weapons and post them on Facebook. You’re basically handing law enforcement proof of your misdeeds.

Luckily for law enforcement, criminals will continue doing just that. They’ll continue being stupid, thus making it easier to find them and prosecute them.

It’s just too bad that Richardson allegedly killed two people before he was captured.

At least he’s facing either a lifetime in prison or possibly the death penalty. That brand of evil, the kind described here, is something no one wants on the streets. No one at all.

There’s also a takeaway here for gun owners. Just having a gun doesn’t make you immune to violence. A firearm is a tool, an implement that can help you, but it’s not an inoculation against criminal activity. One of the victims, Arthur Lee Brown, had a .38 revolver on this nightstand but was gunned down just the same.

That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t keep a firearm handy. It only means you need more than a gun to keep you safe.

In my years, I’ve heard plenty of people boast that they don’t need anything else, they’ve got a gun. Well, that didn’t work out for Mr. Brown here. Consider a multi-layer approach there. Even an alarm that will notify you there’s an intruder would be beneficial, even if it failed to notify police for whatever reason.

Just don’t think your firearm is a magic shield. It’s not. It’s a tool, and a damn good one, but it can’t do everything.