Whenever there's a mass shooting like that which took place in Orlando, the cry goes up for more gun control. Our Democratic elected officials in the House of Representatives disrupted the moment of silence for the victims of the shooting by shouting out more demands for gun control.
The fallacy of the argument that more gun control would save lives and end these shootings can be traced to one simple fact. Those who commit such acts don't care what the law is. If they cared what the law was they wouldn't murder people as murder is against the law. The fact that they're willing to murder people tends to imply that they wouldn't care if the guns they used were legal or not.
Arguing that we can prevent these crimes through better gun control is like arguing that we can prevent drug addiction by making drug use illegal. Wait? What? Drug use is illegal? But, how do so many people get addicted to drugs if they're illegal? There's a black market you say? Well, how about that.
What those arguing for stricter gun control don't like you to know is that a recent survey by the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that 79% of prison inmates convicted of a gun related crime bought their gun from the street, a friend, or family member. This despite guns being readily available in retail establishments. Rather than go through the background checks, registration, and comply with the existing gun control laws/statutes, they buy their weapons on the black market. A black market that's thriving by the way.
Reports indicate that a brand new, never used, high end gun will sell for about $100 to $200 more on the street than in a retail shop. In some cases, with lesser quality weapons, the price difference disappears and can even be lower on the street than in a retail establishment.
The people who get shot by the bad guys aren't less dead if the weapon is from the street rather than a reputable gun shop. Those who wish to hide their acquisition of a gun will always buy on the black market where the laws don't apply. The more restrictions that are placed on the legal sales of guns, the more people we'll drive to the black market.
Laws serve two purposes. They serve as a guideline for acceptable behavior and as a means to punish those who go outside those lines. The vast majority of gun owners never use their gun to commit a crime. They obey the laws, register their guns, purchase them legally, and cause no trouble. Their guns spend most of their life safely locked in a storage cabinet.
Those who are acquiring guns for illegal use now typically (79% of the time if one believes the survey by the Bureau of Justice Statistics) get their guns through sources other than licensed gun dealers. If we shut down every gun store in the country and banned possession of all guns at this very moment, it would have little to no impact on shootings and gun related deaths. Those who are willing to break the law in taking another's life would have no compunction against acquiring a gun illegally. We'd make the black market dealers a lot more money and keep them a lot busier, but we wouldn't solve the problem.
Gun laws aren't magically imbued with pixie dust that makes those willing to kill someone unwilling to break a lesser law to get a gun illegally. The bad guys will pay any price necessary, break any law you can write, to get the guns they want. Fully automatic weapons have been banned for decades but they're readily available on the black market. Convicted felons are routinely caught in the illegal possession of a firearm. "But that's illegal!" They don't care. It's that simple. They don't care. That's why any additional gun control legislation won't work.
And guess what? When any new legislation doesn't work and there's another shooting, and there will be regardless, those crying for more legislation now will say, "Clearly we didn't go far enough! We must be more aggressive." And when there's yet another shooting after that, you'll hear that same cry. It'll be repeated time after time and this is a problem that will never end.
We learned from prohibition that criminalizing alcohol consumption doesn't work. We learned from the drug wars that drug consumption isn't stopped by making drug use illegal. What on Earth makes anyone think we can stop gun violence by putting more restrictions on gun sales? There's already a thriving black market in gun sales. Seventy nine percent of felons surveyed bought their gun illegally now.
"But we've got to do something!" Not if it won't achieve anything, and additional gun control legislation won't achieve anything other than driving even more sales to the black market. Far too often our politicians "do something" but ultimately achieve nothing. Right now they want to "do something" about gun control. What will they achieve? Nothing.Why? Because the bad guys who are going to murder fifty people don't care what the laws are. If they cared about the law, they wouldn't murder fifty people. Murder is against the law. They don't care what the laws are. That's why adding more barriers to possessing a gun won't work. Those wanting a gun will just get one off the street as the majority do now.
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