Rhode Island man accused of making guns, trafficking them

AP Photo/Keith Srakocic

Homemade guns have been a thing since the dawn of this nation. These days, though, that tradition is under attack. Many states have banned so-called ghost guns because they don’t value people making their own firearms.

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Of course, what they’re most upset about isn’t that people can make their own firearms, but that technology has democratized the process so anyone can do it, rather than skilled machinists with their own tooling at home.

And frankly, laws banning the practice aren’t likely to stop people.

After all, Rhode Island’s law allegedly didn’t stop this guy:

A Rhode Island man was arrested in New York Thursday for allegedly selling or attempting to sell more than 100 guns that he produced at his home, according to the US Attorney’s Office Southern District of New York.

Most of the guns were untraceable “privately made firearms” (PMF’s), known as “ghost guns.”

Robert Alcantara, 34, was charged with one count of conspiracy to traffic firearms and one count of making false statements, the US Department of Justice said in a press release. Each count carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

Alcantara allegedly purchased most of the ghost guns in his possession in incomplete form and finished them at a workstation at his Providence home, according to the criminal complaint from the US Attorney’s Office.

Alcantara then allegedly transported firearms to the Dominican Republic via Miami, where he sold them for several thousand dollars, the complaint reads.

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Well all those laws just worked out swimmingly, didn’t they?

I mean, tight gun control in the Dominican Republic didn’t do much, nor did Rhode Island’s ghost gun ban. Why it’s almost like those intent on committing crimes will do so regardless of what the law says. Shocking, I know.

I mean, criminals are normally known to be such law-abiding souls, right? I mean, they might break the law, but they’d never, you know, break the law.

See, the problem with Rhode Island’s ban on homemade firearms, just as with most other such laws, is that while it inhibits the law-abiding from building such weapons, people like Alcantara (allegedly) aren’t going to listen.

As such, it hurts hobbyists and those who simply want to build their own gun for whatever lawful reason, but it doesn’t actually hurt the criminals.

That’s the problem with all such gun control laws. It’s not just that they inhibit the good guys, it’s that they don’t inhibit the criminals.

So, as a result, we end up with situations like this.

It’s typical, unfortunately, but states like Rhode Island–easily one of the most anti-gun states in the nation–don’t actually care about law-abiding citizens who value their Second Amendment rights. They just want to push through nonsense like this and then pat themselves on the back over it.

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In the meantime, they’re giving criminals a hell of an incentive to figure out how to take advantage of the new laws. Remember, the mob wasn’t a thing until alcohol was banned. In fact, banning something is the best way to encourage new criminal enterprises.

That’s all we’re seeing here, and all we will see moving forward if this stupidity continues.

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