The black market for guns is a real problem, particularly in cities like Saint Louis. With their high crime rate, criminals are not just obtaining black market guns at a heightened rate, but using them just as quickly. It’s not a good situation, no matter how you shake it.

Earlier this week, a 15-year-old kid was shot and killed while reportedly trading guns outside of a convenience store.

A teenager fatally shot another teen last weekend when they met to exchange guns in the parking lot of a convenience store, police said in court records obtained Tuesday.

Treshawn Fox, 18, was charged Monday with first-degree murder, first-degree assault, two counts of armed criminal action and first-degree property damage. Fox lives in the 4100 block of St. Louis Avenue. He’s jailed without bail.

St. Louis police said Fox fatally shot 15-year-old Teshawn Ford on Saturday afternoon at Desta’s Market & Deli at 2503 North Taylor Avenue. Ford lived in the 4500 block of St. Ferdinand Avenue.

It seems that when they went to exchange firearms, Fox tried to grab Ford’s gun and fired multiple shots into the teen. A 70-year-old man was also hit by a stray bullet. That individual is hospitalized, but stable.

Now, an 18-year-old is a legal adult, but he’s still too young to have bought his handgun legally. Ford was too young to buy anything more hazardous than a BB gun, yet he also had a handgun.

And anti-gunners are going to tell me that more laws will fix this somehow?

They’re going to tell me that if they pass one more bill, all of this will end?

They might be able to delude themselves over this one, but they’re not going to convince me of their fantasies. These two were involved in illegal activity at a level where they will always be able to obtain a firearm. They’re not buying them from the gun store, they’re either stealing them or buying them from others who stole them.

What are they going to do, make it illegal to steal firearms? Sorry, it already is and that hasn’t helped the situation, now has it?

Look, I get people worrying about these homicides. These aren’t good by any stretch of the imagination. Yet it’s well past time to stop pretending the answer is to restrict the rights of law-abiding citizens who did nothing wrong.

Clearly, there are deeper issues if a 15-year-old kid is meeting up with another to exchange firearms, for crying out loud. Something systemic is wrong if this is something that’s happening. I mean, when I was 15, I was mostly just trying to survive school, play a little basketball or run track, and maybe get a girlfriend. That was about it.

I wasn’t meeting people in parking lots of convenience stores to trade weapons we legally couldn’t buy, for crying out loud.

Of course, we need to ask where the parents were, but this happens with even involved parents, so I don’t know. It does seem clear we need to start looking at the root of these issues and start addressing them.