AP Photo/Elaine Thompson

Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) has been pushing a gun licensing scheme as part of his presidential campaign. He claims it’s necessary because bad people get guns, but if they’re licensed…I guess the black market disappears or something? I don’t know. Old Spartacus isn’t making a whole lot of sense on the issue.

However, part of the defense I’ve seen for his proposal is that every other Western nation requires licensing for guns. I’m not sure if Booker has offered this defense, but some of his supporters have.

It’s true that most of the nations we’re culturally similar to have gun licensing. That doesn’t mean it necessarily works, though. For example, New Zealand is currently upset that they issued licenses to people with criminal records.

Hundreds of gun licences were granted in New Zealand over the last decade despite those people having criminal convictions in Australia, a report says.

More than 600 people with criminal convictions in Australia were granted gun licences in New Zealand, of which 37 went on to commit gun crimes, including two homicides, RNZ reports.

Those convictions would have been considered in the vetting process, but they were often minor “and/or may have happened some years ago”, acting superintendent Mike McIlraith told RNZ.

He said the vetting process for gun licence applications includes “interviewing the applicant and a family referee, usually the spouse, as well as an interview with an [independent] person who knows the applicant well”.

National’s Police spokesperson Brett Hudson said it raises “serious questions about how fit for purpose police processes are”.

“This is no small matter. Of those 639 people with convictions who were granted licences, 37 went on to commit firearms-related crimes, including two homicides,” he said.

Of course, New Zealand’s gun grabbers are freaking out over this. Clearly, the gun licensing requirements aren’t nearly strict enough and need to be overhauled.

Meanwhile, licensing is not keeping guns out of criminal hands but is making life far more difficult for those who are law-abiding and would like to purchase a firearm. Tell me again why this is somehow a good idea?

The truth is this only touches on a handful of the total crimes committed in New Zealand. You see, like any country, New Zealand has a black market. I promise you, guns are traded on that black market as well. Guess what’s not required to buy a firearm? If you said a license, give yourself a cookie.

Licensing hasn’t made New Zealand safer. After all, the government seems willing to issue licenses to people who shouldn’t have them. Folks are outraged over it, so the politicians are going to tighten the strings.

I promise you crime trends won’t change a bit as time progresses. Why? Because guns aren’t the problem. People are, and until you figure that out and address it accordingly, nothing is going to change. We’ve seen that here in the United States and all over the world. The evil that men do will continue after gun control.

What changes is the ability for ordinary citizens to counteract it.