When you talk about states with the most strict gun control laws in the country, only a fool would exclude California from that conversation. The state prides itself on its gun control, and firearms are difficult for even the law-abiding citizen to obtain. There’s no way a felon could amass a pile of guns, right?

Right?

Oh, wait, that’s right. Criminals don’t follow any law they don’t want to obey. That includes gun laws, which is probably why this happened.

Authorities in California acting on a tip swept into a rural home and seized more than 500 guns from a convicted felon, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said.

The tip indicated Manuel Fernandez, 60, was “in possession of a large arsenal of firearms,” the department said in a statement. On Thursday, a team of state and local officers raided the house in Agua Dulce, about 45 miles north of Los Angeles. Authorities immediately seized 432 guns, the department said.

…

The next day, another 91 guns were found hidden at the Fernandez’s home, authorities said. Detectives also seized computers, cellphones and hard drives believed to be involved in the illegal purchase of firearms, the department said.

Another 30 guns were found at the home of a female associate of Fernandez.

Needless to say, Fernandez was arrested. He’ll probably spend a whole lot of time behind bars.

While authorities believe Fernandez was involved in the illegal gun trade, it’s important to remember something. This one individual was able to get his hands on more than 500 firearms despite his status as a felon. This despite the numerous laws designed to prevent him from doing so.

In fact, it’s almost like the laws did precisely nothing to keep guns out of Fernandez’s hands.

Nothing at all.

This individual was able to amass a massive arsenal for whatever purpose in spite of the countless laws explicitly meant to prevent just that. But criminals, by their very nature, don’t obey laws. Fernandez went around the law in some way, shape, or form to obtain all those weapons. This should illustrate the fallacy of gun laws keeping firearms out of criminal hands.

However, anti-gunners are experts at ignoring the truth.

They’ll look at this as evidence that more laws are needed. They’ll see this and be absolutely convinced that at least one more law is required. One more measure to pass and all of this could have been prevented.

The thing is, even if we learn precisely how Fernandez got these weapons, there’s little that will stop a determined criminal from getting guns. As noted yesterday, there’s a gun in this country for every man, woman, child, and infant. We have more than enough guns already in circulation that keeping guns out of the hands of criminals is a fool’s errand.

Yes, we should enforce the laws on the books. We should enforce them vigorously. But we should also make sure the law-abiding have the means to defend themselves from predators.

California sucks on that count.

Meanwhile, they can’t stop a felon from amassing a real arsenal of guns regardless of what the law says. Funny that.