Every election year yard signs for candidates are stolen. I know. I had two Kerry sign stolen from my yard in 2004, and there are numerous reports this year of both Obama and McCain signs being stolen or vandalized. And it’s troubling, and certainly annoying if it happens to you. However, I’ve never heard of anyone going this far to protect anyone’s political yard sign — until now:

WARREN — A pair of teenage boys thought they were playing a prank by knocking down a John McCain campaign sign Saturday afternoon and yelling, “This is for Obama” to the homeowner.

But the homeowner, Kenneth Rowles, 50, was sitting on the front porch and didn’t think it was funny, especially since this was the second time vandals had damaged his campaign signs.

Rowles went into his 1237 Dover St. home in Warren Township, got a .22-caliber rifle and went back to the porch to confront the boys at about 2 p.m.

Rowles said he fired the rifle three times “to scare them” but never pointed the rifle at the boys or the car.

Nonetheless, at about 11 a.m. Sunday, the mother of one of the boys called police — saying her nephew, Kyree Flowers, 17, of 1205 Dover, had been shot once in the arm, and that her tan GMC SUV had been hit by two other bullets.

Flowers received a minor injury from the bullet and was treated at a local hospital Sunday.

The woman’s son, Patrick A. Wise Jr., 16, of Commerce Avenue in Warren, was the driver of the car. He told police: “Joking and playing, I got out of the car and kicked his political sign over. Kyree was in the car and told me to turn around, and I saw the man pointing his gun at me, trying to shoot at me, working the action. I ran into the car, and he shot at us through both the passenger and driver window.” […]

Warren Township police confiscated all of the weapons in Rowles’ home: 11 long guns (meaning rifles and shotguns) and four pistols.

Look Mr. Rowles, being over 50 (and suffering from the odd bout of crankiness), I’m at that stage of life where where teenage boys sometimes annoy the crap out of me, and having been the victim of yard sign theft myself, I can understand your anger. I can even understand you wanting to get a little justice for the way they were treating your property. But haven’t you ever heard of using 911 to call the police? Apparently these “young punks” weren’t armed, and posed no threat to you personally, just to your signage. I’m sure the police would have been more than happy to assist you with putting an end to their “crime spree.”

And don’t tell me you just fired those 3 shots to scare them off. Warning shots get fired into the ground or the air (though I wouldn’t shoot one skyward, folks, since what goes up does eventually come down). They don’t end up putting holes in someone’s arm and in their car. That takes deliberation and careful aim. And what if you had missed with your “warning shots” and wounded or killed one of your innocent neighbors? That would have been a very tragic outcome merely to save your blue McCain/Palin sign from theft by a 16 year old and a 17 year old, don’t you think?

In other words, Mr. Knowles, you didn’t act very responsively. I’d say it sounds like you acted like someone who was willing to kill those two kids just to protect your stupid sign.

What those teenagers did was wrong, no question about it. They deserve to be punished to the full extent of the law. Of course, what they did is probably petty theft or perhaps criminal mischief. What you did, however, was dangerously reckless, at best, and attempted murder, at worst. And you deserve to be punished to the full extent of the law if, as reported, you shot at them when they presented no danger of imminent harm to you.

And I hope they take away all your guns permanently, too. Clearly you don’t understand the difference between legitimate self defense of home and family and taking out your frustrations at others with a bullet just because you own a gun. The Second Amendment doesn’t mean you get to pretend you’re Dirty Harry, Ken, and certainly not over a damn yard sign.