As Canada considers a handgun ban, a recent sentencing in that country may shed a little light on the topic. You see, while they can ban the legal sale of anything they want, it doesn’t mean they’ll do anything of note when it comes to combatting crime.

Especially with people more than willing to do things like this to smuggle guns.

The Haskell Free Library and Opera House in Derby Line, Vt. is famously intersected by the U.S.-Canada border. For one career criminal, it was the perfect place to commit a crime.

Alexis Vlachos, of Montreal, Canada, was sentenced Tuesday to more than four years in prison for smuggling 100 firearms through the bathroom at the library.

The 41-year-old man led a three-man operation that brought weapons from licensed dealers in Florida to Vermont between July 2010 and April 2011.

His co-conspirators would arrive at the library and hide a backpack containing the handguns in a trashcan in the bathroom before leaving, VT Digger reported.

Vlachos, who was already in the library from Quebec, then would grab the backpack of guns stashed in the bathroom and walk out of the library.

While the exit is in Vermont, he would just cross into Canada without ever stopping at a border checkpoint, Seven Days reported.

The United States and Canada share the longest unprotected border in the world. While there are checkpoints along roadways, there are a whole lot of other places to cross where no one will know.

Generally, it’s not a big problem. Canada isn’t known for exporting criminals to the United States, for example, so in this country, we don’t spend a lot of time worrying about that particular border.

But because of the nature of the border, guns can be smuggled into their country pretty easily.

Now, let me be clear, there’s nothing about this that’s legal. Even if the guns were purchased at a gun store, the buyer did so illegally because he lied on the paperwork. He wasn’t purchasing them for himself. The whole thing was already illegal.

Yet it happened.

I mean, it’s almost like criminals break laws.

Shocking, I know. I mean, the criminal class is well known for their compliance with any and all laws, right?

Seriously, while Canada is considering a handgun ban, they might want to remember that criminals will get guns one way or another. They’ll smuggle them from here easily enough. Even if the U.S. were to ban them as well, criminals would find another source.

Now, I’m not saying to not prosecute those who break these laws, but I am saying that creating bans that only really impact the law-abiding is idiotic. You disarm the innocent while doing nothing to combat the real problem, guns in criminal hands. It’s stupid.

But, then again, Canada has gone so far into anti-gun territory as a country that I’m not sure they’re remotely capable of comprehending that these laws aren’t making them safer. They’re making it easier for those who have no respect for law and order.