I don't think the kids were stupid. I really don't. We are talking about college students here, and when have college students ever been known for painstakingly well thought behavior. (No offence to students, I am one, so I feel justified in saying that)
I doubt anyone on this forum would play that type of prank, but lets face it: pranks are not supposed to be "nice" or "friendly." They are supposed to scare the living daylights out of someone. I highly doubt that either of the pranksters grew up around guns. Think about it, most of us by definition of reading this forum, are interested in self defence. If thats not your mindset, if you're someone who grew up never thinking about the "what ifs," I can see the prank sounding like a good idea at the time.
I know some people say that they don't tell people they have guns, but I do tell my friends, even the anti's, that I own guns. I make it painstakingly clear to them that if they stop by in the middle of the night, I'm going to answer the door, and I'm going top be armed.
At the begining of my post I said that I don't think the kids were stupid: I think they were ignorant. I don't think it was a matter of intelligence, or lack there of, but of not having the frame of reference or having the experiances that should have told them "Hey, this is not a good idea." If they never had guns, if they never anticipated a home invasion happening to them, it doesn't really make since for them to assume that people are going to be armed, or not find it funny.
You can overcome ignorance with teaching, but you can't fix stupid.
Chris "the Kayak-Man" Johnson
I'm not defending the kids actions.