AP Photo/Lynne Sladky

I believe we already have too many gun laws on the books. However, I also recognize that many of those laws aren’t going to go anywhere no matter how much I might wish it. They’re now so ingrained into the fabric of our nation that trying to repeal them would be a herculean undertaking.

Or perhaps Sisyphys is a better Greek mythological reference, which is why it’s frustrating to have anti-gunners continually push for more and more gun laws when so few of them are currently enforced.

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) has called for enforcing existing gun laws, and at least one paper agrees with him.

Listen to squabbles about gun control and you are bound to hear one question come up, either from frustrated proponents of limits or aggrieved champions of the Second Amendment.

Why don’t we just enforce the rules we already have?

If the two sides would actually listen to each other, they might realize that they have this one crucial area where they agree, and that might be a start to finding answers.

It is, perhaps, unsurprising that — while Pittsburgh is passing restrictions and a state legislator is proposing an annual registry — a rare Republican with common-sense gun control credentials has seized on the idea of not reinventing the wheel. Instead, U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Lehigh Valley, would like to stop the wheel from wobbling.

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Toomey no doubt learned this from his failed 2013 bid with U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., to institute universal federal background checks after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Now he just wants to take the checks that are being done and make sure the information is shared.

“When a person has been convicted of a crime and is disqualified from purchasing a gun and attempts to do so, that person is committing a crime,” Toomey said. “The FBI very seldom prosecutes those cases, but the state attorneys general might want to prosecute them.”

To be clear, I’m not saying Toomey is a friend to gun owners. In fact, I doubt there’s a pro-gun bone in his body.

But I will say that I’d much rather see the rules we all follow anyway be enforced than see more gun regulations chug on down the track. At least that won’t impact law-abiding gun owners nearly as much and cause more consternation among the criminal elements in our communities.

However, it’s not going to happen. You see, despite claims that both sides want to see laws enforced, which side blocked an amendment that would require ICE to be notified when illegals tried to buy guns? It sure wasn’t the National Rifle Association.

No, I don’t think your average anti-gunner cares about enforcing existing gun laws. I think they prefer them unenforced, in part because law-abiding citizens will follow them while criminals and maniacs won’t. They can then use that to justify still more gun laws like they always have.

Gun control isn’t about stopping crime or saving lives. If it were, that amendment regarding illegal immigrants would have sailed through.