Suppressors are among the most tightly controlled items in the world of firearms. They’re subject to everything gun control advocates say they want for all other firearms. You have to get permission to buy one, pay a special tax, and jump through a ton of hoops just to get one.

And yet, a few guys allegedly illustrate just how futile gun control really is.

An Iosco County man and two out-of-state cohorts are facing federal charges for allegedly selling more than $1 million in illicit firearms silencers.

A grand jury on Jan. 19 handed down an indictment against 55-year-old Christopher J. Ridenour, of National City, charging him with conspiracy to deal or manufacture firearms without a license, aiding and abetting dealing firearms without a license, and two counts of possessing an unregistered short-barreled rifle.

The grand jury indicted codefendants Nick Logan on the first two counts and Cullen Swanson on the second charge.

The indictment states that from March 2017 to Dec. 16, 2020, the three men conspired to manufacture and sell silencers, all without a federal firearms license between them. The men did end up dealing silencers to gun owners, the document states.

Again, suppressors are tightly controlled. They’re in the same category, legally speaking, as machine guns.

Further, there aren’t really any legal kits for building your own suppressors. Sure, you can find stuff that’s advertised as something else but can be readily turned into a suppressor, but those aren’t legally sold as such.

In other words, all the gun control in the world exists to prevent unapproved individuals from getting suppressors, and yet, someone stepped in to meet this illicit demand.

Funny how that works, ain’t it?

Time and time again, we tell people that banning guns or any other item doesn’t necessarily prevent people from getting that item. If there’s a demand, someone will step in to meet that demand.

And this isn’t going to just stop at suppressors, either.

We’ve seen this happen with guns as well. That’s because criminals don’t follow laws.

Meanwhile, the people who represent absolutely no threat to anyone are either denied a suppressor–something that should be more properly thought of as a safety device–or have to jump through hoops in order to get one.

Sorry, nothing about that sits right with me.

I mean, you can give a good guy a rocket launcher and he’s not going to hurt a soul with it, but a violent felon will kill someone with a rock if that’s all he can get. That’s because the issue isn’t the tool but the tool using it. That’s what it’s always been, since Caine slew Able.

I mean, it’s not like background checks would have stopped Caine, just like the requirement for them didn’t stop these guys from building suppressors for profit.

Allegedly.

At some point, if you want to address criminal actions, you have to recognize that banning stuff isn’t really the solution, especially when law-abiding citizens can make lawful use of those items as well.

Instead, we need to focus on why people become criminals and what we can do to prevent that.