The media and anti-Second Amendment types have been all abuzz about so-called ghost guns over the last couple of years. While it’s always been legal to build your own firearm, there’s been a lot of handwringing about them these days. Part of that is because you can buy kits that make it easier to build.

In some people’s minds, that’s about the most awful thing in the world. I mean, people can get guns without background checks. That means people you would prefer not to have guns might get a firearm without undergoing a background check.

As if they’re not already doing that.

Now, the governor of New York has signed bills that will supposedly ban this practice.

Gov. Kathy Hochul signed three bills Thursday to make ghost guns illegal.

The governor says there have been criminals going to extreme lengths to possess illegal guns by using untraceable firearms that are often bought online and assembled at home.

“Now we’re finally putting a stop to that,” Hochul says. “We now finally have a bill that makes it a crime to sell the unfinished frame of receivers where people can put together guns in evading our law.”

…

The bills will make it illegal to build untraceable guns, criminalize the sale of ghost guns and crack down on firearms that look like toy guns.

Now, understand how this law is actually going to work.

First, it’s already illegal for criminals to build a firearm. Now, the state is making a law meant to stop criminals from doing something they were already banned from doing.

Does anyone really think this is going to stop a damn thing? Anyone at all?

Meanwhile, law-abiding citizens who built these guns as a hobby and for their own personal use are now banned from doing so. Meanwhile, the criminals are going to keep doing it.

“But it banned unfinished receivers. They won’t be able to get those, and that’ll stop them.”

Oh, you sweet summer child, you really were dropped on your head as a baby, weren’t you?

If criminals are able to get actual guns, do you think they won’t be able to get an incomplete receiver? Of course they can. It won’t even necessarily be that difficult, either. All they’d need is a P.O. Box out of state and they can buy as many as they want.

And even if you somehow stopped that, we live in the age of the 3D printer. People can just print receivers all day long. Do you really think you can stop that from happening with a stroke of a pen?

Yes, doing so would be illegal, but how are you going to catch everyone who does it?

You’re not.

Meanwhile, the law-abiding citizen is stuck there at the mercy of the market. If it’s not on the shelves at their local gun store, they’re just slap out of luck. This law stops them from finding another route to obtaining a firearm.

The problem with laws like this is that they put the law-abiding citizen at a disadvantage to the criminals who disobey laws as a matter of course.

And New York isn’t going to see a bit of difference in their crime rates, either.