Anti-gun jihadists will tell us over and over that gun control works. They claim the violent crime rates throughout the developed world are more than sufficient evidence to prove it works.

I, however, usually counter that by pointing out that those countries tend to have a lower rate of violence in general. However, terrorists and other people with similar, criminal inclinations, have an annoying tendency to still get firearms into the country to conduct their nefarious deeds.

Kind of like what happened in France yesterday.

Hooded gunmen armed with AK-47s have opened fire near a group of young people on a housing estate outside the French Mediterranean city of Marseille before reportedly taking a man hostage.

At least one person was injured when the gunmen, all dressed in black, drew up in three vehicles, and began shooting near a cultural centre in the Busserine district.

The local newspaper La Provence reported that the armed gang appeared to be looking for someone and threatened locals before firing several times into the air. They then grabbed a youth and drove off.

Police said the incident was not being investigated as terrorism.

Amateur film footage posted on Twitter showed at least half a dozen black-clad gunmen firing, apparently at random, on the estate. Witnesses said the group brandished several semi-automatic rifles and at least one handgun.

Now, whether these were real AK-47s or semi-automatic clones is irrelevant at this point. France doesn’t allow ordinary people to have either, at least not in any meaningful way. France is a country with very strict gun control policies and guess what happened? The same thing that will keep happening in every country with a disarmed citizenry. Those with guns will do whatever the hell they want.

There are still a lot of questions about this gang and their motives, of course, but for us, that is also kind of irrelevant.

What does matter is that this is evidence that gun control doesn’t actually work. If it did, these guys wouldn’t have been popping off rounds from a Kalishnakov in the middle of Marseille.  At least not if you define gun control “working” as keeping guns out of the hands of the people who should least have them.

France has a completely disarmed population. There was no one around who can do anything to protect themselves against any criminal, really. They’ve created a victim population.

That’s part of why stuff like this happens there and not here.

Oh, there are still kidnappings and such, to be sure. However, no one dares be so brazen as to get out of a car with AK-pattern rifles, shooting into the sky, and taking someone hostage. Pretty much anywhere in the South, that’ll get you shot. The same is true of a whole lot of other states as well, and for the anti-gun folks out there, that’s a good thing.

In the ends, though, France gets to reap what they sew. This is what happens when you disarm your citizenry. It’s the right of all free men and women to have access to the means to defend themselves, but when a government decides otherwise, stuff like this will happen and no one can do a damn thing.