Someone wasn't thinking about the children...

[Remmah2]

9. Subject to rust.

Firearms should be subject to supervision. On the hip, close at hand, or when not supervised in a locked cabinet. Bad idea to leave the liquor cabinet unlocked too. Unfortunatly medicines should be secured as well. Take the keys out of the ignition. Breaching a lock indicates that the thief had intent to do harm. Not an accidental walk off.

There was a time when you didn't need to lock your door, lock your car or lock the gun cabinet. Child proof caps on medicine bottles were adequate. Times have changed and we live in a society that sues everybody and declines to take personal responsibility. Some adults are worse than some 12 year olds.

I would be interested to know how the .22 was exactly stored in the barn. Personally, being subject to rust, I wouldn't store my firearms in the barn. Not even in a locked cabinet. If the 17 Y.O. male took the firearm off the top of an open work bench/shelf then two wrongs were comitted. If he stole it from a simple locked cabinet or assaulted his grandfather and took it off his person, different circumstances.

I grew up working on a farm. Grew up working around all the herbicides, pesticides, vet medicines and fertilizers. Times have changed, mostly people have changed.