We made laws making murder, assault... illegal. Criminals continued to murder and they used guns to murder often.
We made it illegal to get a gun if you're a certain level of convicted criminal. Convicted criminals continue to get guns and continue using them to assault and murder. One way is making their own guns. Another is stealing guns from others, (that's also illegal.)
Now we are looking to make getting gun parts illegal.
What I'm seeing is that we are repeating the same actions with the same goals without achieving the desired result.
Crime leads to investigations which lead to arrests. Arrests generally lead to convictions and prison. Then 5 to 15 years later these criminals are released into the same environment where getting guns is illegal but still common for criminals to get them. IMO that's not reasonable.
Maybe we could try a few things that embody a bit more hope of success. Maybe keep these folks in prison until they're no longer a threat. And maybe if we could find what leads these folks to such crimes, we could provide support, guidance and direction and prevent them from getting into crime.
At this point I'm beginning to doubt that our governments, federal, state and local, really want to solve this problem. Which tact is worse? One group wants to blame guns and make them illegaler. Another group wants to blame drugs and make them illegaler. I've written about the results of making guns harder to get and how that's not working. Blaming drugs isn't working. Once we figured out that lots of drugs are smuggled in, we began taking the "WAR" against drugs to other countries. We send arms, advisors and troops in boats, trucks and helicopters who are armed, BTW. there is some evidence that some of those arms are acquired by gangs running the drugs into the US.
But, in spite of all that, I don't see much evidence that at least the federal government really wants to stop gun violence. Gunrunning is a business and whether it's legal or illegal (or in some not well defined gray areas) people are making money from running guns. Running guns around the corner or around the globe is netting some folks a profit.
Some of the truest words I've ever read on gun running are from the movie, Lord of War:
"While private gunrunners continue to thrive, the world's biggest arms suppliers are the US, UK, Russia, France and China. They are also the five permanent members of the UN Security Council."
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