Teenagers can’t lawfully purchase guns. While parents can provide a gun to someone of that age for a lawful purpose, those kids can’t then take that gun, stuff it in their pants, and go out on the town.

It’s just not lawful, and while I can’t say it never has been, it hasn’t been legal in the lifetime of any teen on the planet today.

That didn’t stop a couple involved in a 40-person brawl in a Columbus, Ohio, shopping mall, though.

Two teenagers were arrested following a fight involving at least 40 juveniles at a Columbus mall Saturday night, according to our news partners at WBNS.

The two 17-year-old boys were charged with aggravated riot and carrying concealed weapons. The boys had fully loaded handguns on them, according to WBNS.

…

Nobody was hurt and there were no reports of any shots fired.

First, I have to say that I’m kind of impressed. I didn’t know you could still find 40 people in any shopping mall in the United States anymore.

On the flip side, this is why I buy everything online. Just sayin’.

Now, as for the guns…

They were “fully loaded,” which I suppose is somehow worse than only partially loaded. I guess. Frankly, that’s one of those phrases that make no sense in the grand scheme of things because it’s not like the amount of ammo will make a huge difference, especially not in a situation like this.

What does make a difference is that this brawl wasn’t some bar fight in a movie where one guy punches the other, and it spirals out of control from there. That just doesn’t happen. This was likely some kind of gang thing, in which case it’s a good thing there weren’t any shots fired because it could have easily gone that far if it was gang-related.

But the fact remains that these were teenagers. Kids. People who couldn’t lawfully buy a firearm of any kind anywhere on the planet, much less here in the US.

Yet, despite all those laws banning such sales, two of them not just had guns but were carrying them unlawfully as they engaged in an act of violence.

I don’t need to explain just how badly this could have gone. Where did the gun laws prevent this?

I’m not saying we should let children run around with guns, mind you. I’m just saying that maybe it’s time to stop focusing so much on the tools being used and focus on the tools using them. This incident shows that if people want to be violent, they will be violent.

If you focus on undermining the desire to become violent in the first place, none of the rest matters. If they’re not on the pathway to becoming violent criminals, they won’t be getting guns in the first place, nor will they be sparking off brawls in shopping malls.

Plus, they’ll live a longer, happier life that way.

Somehow, I doubt the usual suspects are interested in that.