AP Photo/Eric Gay, File

Years ago, lawmakers got concerned over Glocks. The polymer lower freaked them out. Reports abounded that the weapons could be taken through airport metal detectors, which sparked concerns over terrorism and assassination. The idea was that bad people could get these guns, carry them anywhere, and law enforcement would be powerless to prevent it.

While those concerns were mostly male bovine excrement, the federal government passed a law that required all firearms to have a minimal amount of metal within them. That way, metal detectors could pick them up.

Today, we have 3D printers and the means to manufacture what amount to plastic guns, yet those firearms are still required to have a specific amount of metal within them. The Liberator–a 3D printed handgun–is a design that calls for that small amount of metal as well. It’s fully compliant with the law.

Yet the fears persist.

Now, states are trying to ban the guns, missing quite a few points in the process. New York is the most recent example.

Making, selling, transporting or possessing 3D-printed guns and other undetectable firearms would be banned in New York under legislation approved by the Democrat-controlled state Legislature.

The Assembly passed the bill Monday, five days after the legislation was approved by the Senate.

The measure would ban all firearms whose components can’t be detected by security screening technology such as X-rays and metal detectors typically used at airports.

The bill now goes to Gov. Andrew Cuomo for approval or veto. The third-term Democrat has successfully pushed for tighter gun control laws in New York in recent years.

Of course, Cuomo will sign the bill. The man has never met a gun control measure he didn’t like.

However, they missed that undetectable firearms are already illegal. They’ve been illegal at the federal level for decades. Further, 3D-printed guns still require a small bit of metal to be legal.

Hello?

Another point they’ve missed, however, is that the people they need to be concerned about are the people who aren’t likely to listen to the laws in the first place.

Let’s say that it was possible to print an undetectable, easily-concealable firearm. It’s not right now, but let’s assume that it will be somewhere down the road.

Should that ever happen, some would print the guns for their amusement. They’d keep them in the safe, bring them out for a day at the range or maybe show them off, little more.

A handful of others would carry such weapons for their protection in so-called secure environments. The whole “better to be tried by twelve than carried by six” logic taken a bit further than some of us would go. They’re not a threat, though.

Neither of these groups represents a threat to the safety of anyone except for criminals.

Another group that would print these guns, however, will continue to print them in New York state regardless of the law. They’ll print these guns and use them because they don’t care about the legality of them. Hell, the illegality may be a selling point for some of them. What won’t be an issue is that the state has barred their existence. They’re not going to be dissuaded by the fact that they’re banned.

In other words, the bad guys will print these guns while the good guys are stuck following the law.

That’s the big problem with not just laws like this, but gun control laws in general. We continue to see criminals ignoring the laws and getting guns anyway, to which lawmakers create more laws for them to ignore, all while never addressing anything else.

It’s pathetic.

Honestly, I’d point and laugh if these laws didn’t also impact my right to keep and bear arms.

New York just accomplished nothing. Par for the course for that bunch, though.