I concur with the Journal Gazette editorial (“Review decision on 12-year-old,” July 24) suggesting that justice demands a higher court examine the decision to try and sentence 12-year-old Paul Gingerich and 15-year-old Colt Lundy as adults. It’s clear that the Kosciusko County criminal justice system is populated with blockheads. But this is no excuse for disregarding what is stated clearly in Article 1, Section 18 of the Indiana Constitution (i.e., “The penal code shall be founded on the principles of reformation and not of vindictive justice”).

If Gingerich and Lundy are tried and sentenced as adults, justice demands that National Rifle Association stalwart Bob Aldridge also be tried, sentenced, and imprisoned with them. Their heinous crime, using two different handguns, offers Exhibition A for what Aldridge and his fellow gun-toting cowboys have been preaching. Put a handgun in the possession of every citizen, including children, and transform the entire state of Indiana into the OK Corral.

REV. THOMAS E. SAGENDORF Hamilton