There is pretty much no place on the planet where a 14-year-old kid can lawfully buy a gun. Even here in the land of the free, a teenager like that can’t walk into a store and walk out with a firearm. It simply cannot be done.

Once they become a lawful adult, sure, in most places they can get a firearm, but not when they’re just 14.

All our gun control laws say they can’t do it. That’s especially so in an anti-gun state like New Jersey.

And yet, we have this:

A 14-year-old Paterson boy was behind the wheel of a car which contained three loaded weapons when police stopped it early Monday morning, Public Safety Director Jerry Speziale announced.

According to a statement, at around 1:00 a.m. detectives were conducting surveillance in the area of Park Avenue and Rosa Parks Boulevard when they observed a Honda SUV, the occupants inside reportedly passing a handgun. As police approached the vehicle until a stop was conducted at Market and East 18th Streets. At this point the driver, later identified as the 14-year-old juvenile, exited the vehicle along with a passenger, both fleeing the area on foot, refusing verbal commands to stop.

The kid dumped the gun as he was running from police. Two more were found in the vehicle, one with a 30-round magazine–something forbidden in New Jersey.

So, we have a teenager with three handguns and a 30-round magazine in one of the most gun-controlled states in the nation.

Still think gun control keeps guns out of the hands of those who shouldn’t have them?

If you do, there’s probably no hope for you.

This particular juvenile was clearly involved with some shady stuff, likely tied to the other person in the vehicle. He was able to obtain at least one firearm and also clearly had access to more as well as restricted magazines.

If gun control can’t keep a gun out of this kid’s hands, then how is it supposed to protect us from criminals in general? The simple answer is that it can’t. Guns are the tools of a criminal’s trade, and they won’t be without them if they can help it. They’ll find a way to get them regardless of what laws you put in place to try and stop that.

It’s what bad guys do.

But what those laws have done, though, is put law-abiding people at a tactical disadvantage. They can’t meet the threat on anything like equal footing, so the criminals are able to do as they wish. That’s simply not right and part of why I can never support gun control under any circumstances.

Unfortunately, many people ignore this. They’ve deluded themselves into believing that they can get it right, that it isn’t an issue.

But it is.

If a 14-year-old juvenile offender can get access to three firearms and restricted magazines, imagine what a career criminal can get.

Now picture the law-abiding citizen who’d like a slightly better magazine capacity but can’t because of the law. This while a 14-year-old had a 30-round magazine for a handgun.

Yeah, that’s gun control in a nutshell.