Why Gun Controls Don't Work as Officially Promoted

Gary North - July 07, 2018

We know this, but it’s nice to see a newspaper editor admit it.

Criminals don’t buy their guns in stores
Mark Sprowl [“How many guns are enough?”] cited the recent slaying of a Hanover teen by another teen as a case against the repeal of Virginia’s one-gun-a-month law. In our state, one cannot purchase a handgun in a store below the age of 21. Therefore, logic would dictate that the shooter (who was 19) acquired his gun illegally, through a private seller, or by presenting false identification to the store clerk.
Regulations do not stop criminals from getting guns; they simply prevent law-abiding citizens from exercising their Second Amendment rights. Criminals generally obtain their weapons from friends and acquaintances or by stealing them because any gun bought in a store can be easily traced back to its original buyer. Although there are special cases (like that of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords) where criminals purchase their weapons through stores, most criminals won’t make that mistake.
A 2004 study by Jim Kouri, the fifth vice president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police, interviewed prison inmates who divulged where they obtained their guns. Only 8 percent said they bought them in stores, while 39 percent said they obtained them illegally and nearly 40 percent claimed they had bought them from friends or family.
Sprowl’s heart is in the right place, but most guns aren’t bought in stores. If criminals aren’t buying their guns in stores, how would stricter gun regulation preclude incidents of violent crime?

The primary purpose of gun control laws is not to reduce crimes against the public. It is rather to disarm the public, making voters dependent on government for protection.

Government offers little protection. The police solve few crimes except through informers. They cannot get to your home in time to save you from an assault by an armed criminal.

Then there is the cop who raped the woman who had called for help. With no weapon, the woman was helpless.

Everyone knows this in the gun control movement’s leadership. They do not care. They see the goal of a helpless, disarmed public as more important than crime-reduction. These people want power. An armed public restricts their extension of power.

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Published on February 8, 2012. The original is here.