No joy ride

The pre-dawn death of eighth-grader Quavale Finnell Monday behind the wheel of a stolen car has cautionary tale written all over it. The 14-year-old was shot by the car owner Bennie Hall, 61, in front of his Kennedy Heights home. Finnell's home was miles away, in South Fairmount, with his mother. The boy already had a juvenile record of 13 offenses, including breaking and entering.

A few very preliminary observations.
1. Why was an eighth grader with 13 juvenile offenses permitted to stay away from home the night before a school day?
2. It's hindsight, but he would have been safer in detention. What help if any did the courts attempt after his previous offenses?
3. Even though 14 year olds nowadays commit heinous crimes, it's still an awfully young age to understand that grand larceny or even breaking or entering is a high-risk crime.
4. If this was, as it appears, a car-theft, the boy was most at fault in initiating it. But the usually sharp lines between offender and victim quickly blurred. The car owner's action may have made him a double "victim," even if not charged. He has to live with the knowledge he killed a kid. Both boy and car owner exhibited a false sense of property rights.
5. Gun owners need to be very clear that ignorance of the law is no defense, and that includes the legal limits on use of deadly force.