Merle doesn't have all his BB's.

In a do-gooder article about how poor inner city teens lead a life of crime because they don't think they'll live very long (and I have lots of comments about the article, but I'll save them for another time), the authors used the example of 15-year-old Merl Lovings.

Last year, poor Merle stole a BB gun from Walmart. He was caught. Merle's reason for the theft was that his little brother needed a pair of shoes, and he was going to sell the gun so he could buy the shoes. "For the short term, man, I was just like, if I do this I can get my brother some shoes . . ."

Now, Merle, let's think about this. You are at Walmart. Why wouldn't you just trot over to the children's shoe department and steal the pair of shoes and save yourself the trouble of trying to sell a hot gun? Not to mention that a pair of kid's shoes is probably easier to conceal than a BB gun.

What's really troubling is the do-gooders didn't find anything odd about Merle's explanation. They evidently fell for his sob story hook, line, and sinker. I titled this post "Merle doesn't have all his BB's," but that may not be quite accurate. It looks like Merle knows how to play the social workers quite well, and that they're the ones missing the BB's.

"Teens who expect to die young are drawn to crime." The Dallas Morning News; May 12, 2014; p. 1A.