Governor Gina Raimondo has made it quite clear that she’s not a fan of guns. Her tiny state is one of the most gun controlled states in the nation, often overlooked because of its size and not because of the encroachments on civil liberties.

In fact, I’m pretty sure Raimondo has never met a gun control law she didn’t like. The same is true of far too many lawmakers in the state.

That’s how they ended up with one more rule the criminals will ignore.

The governor of Rhode Island on Tuesday signed into law bills that ban 3D-printed guns and so-called “ghost guns” in the state.

The bills, the first ones Gov. Gina Raimondo has signed during the coronavirus pandemic, are “a matter of public health,” she said.

“I am proud to sign them because it is an important step forward in common sense gun reforms that make Rhode Island communities safer,” the Democratic governor said.

Sponsored by state Sen. Cynthia Coyne, D-Barrington, and state Rep. Patricia Serpa, D-West Warwick, the bills were approved by the legislature last week.

3-D printed guns are generally plastic and undetectable by metal detectors. Ghost guns are available in kits, don’t require a background check to purchase and lack serial numbers.

Uh…no. 3-D printed guns are mostly plastic, but federal law already requires them to have a certain amount of metal in them, enough to be picked up by metal detectors. If the law is sufficient to stop criminals from doing things, then surely the federal law against undetectable weapons is enough to stop 3-D printed guns that can evade detection, right?

Ghost guns, however, are any gun that is produced by someone without a serial number. It doesn’t necessarily require a kit to manufacture. Plenty of people have CAD files for milling receivers for various firearms already. They don’t need a kit to do a damn thing, especially with sufficient expertise.

And despite Raimondo’s claims, these measures do nothing to make anyone in her state any safer.

Criminals will continue to disregard such laws because, well, they’re criminals, and that’s precisely what they do. They’ll print guns if they want to, they’ll sell those guns if they want to, and no law is going to stop them. After all, making these guns to sell without a license was already illegal, and that didn’t stop anyone.

The truth of the matter is that this isn’t really about safety. Raimondo is making that case, but it’s not. I think on some level, she knows it’s not.

No, it’s not even about control. It seems like that sometimes, but anti-gunners aren’t supervillains looking to stomp us all just as soon as we give up our guns.

It’s really about feelings. This is all about making people feel safer rather than doing anything to make folks safer. It’s about presenting something that will allow folks to delude themselves into feeling like their lives are a tad bit better without having to do anything substantive to make that happen.

Raimondo is selling Rhode Islanders a bill of goods and praying she can keep the con going long enough to either leave office gracefully or get elected to some higher office. That’s it.

And the sad thing is, Rhode Islanders are going to let her get away with it.