So-called ghost guns have been touted as a massive problem that’s only getting worse.

I’ve written about the scaremongering more than once, and I stand by what I’ve said in those previous posts. Much of the threat is overblown and it’s nothing more than an attempt to use fear to push for preferred policies.

New York already has those policies. They also just had the biggest “ghost gun” bust in state history.

Wenli Bai, 57, of Frederick, Maryland, allegedly communicated with an undercover investigator from the Queens District Attorney’s Office on multiple sales of gun kits between mid-February and early March. Bai allegedly sold the undercover dozens of gun kits in two meetings behind a business on South Conduit Avenue.

A search of Bai’s vehicle turned up dozens of kits, parts and ammunition feeders, prosecutors said.

…

“This is the largest seizure of illegal ghost gun kits in New York State to date. In addition to ‘the iron pipeline,’ we’re now seeing a polymer pipeline of illegal, untraceable ghost guns and ghost gun parts from down south,” Queens DA Melinda Katz said in a statement.

Oh, that’s adorable. They think that they can pin this on states that don’t ban homemade firearms? They’re cute when they’re inane and tyrannical, aren’t they?

Look, New York had better get used to this. This is their new normal when it comes to guns.

If kits were banned in all 50 states, you’d still have a problem with “ghost guns.” Why? because 3D printers are a thing and spare parts for guns are always going to be available and likely unserialized. If you’ve got those two things–and there are designs that don’t need standard gun parts at all–you’ve got the means to build guns.

The truth of the matter is that the genie is out of the bottle on this. You can’t put it back in. It’s too late for that.

As such, the best way forward isn’t more regulation or pretending that your problems are the result of the laws in a different state. It’s to recognize that the answers aren’t going to lie in regulating an activity that criminals will continue to engage in.

They need a different approach, either by trying to sidetrack people heading toward a criminal lifestyle or by hammering those who are already there. Either is fine by me at this point.

What’s not fine, though, is this constant act states like New York engage in where they pretend their problems are because of another state. It’s not. Those guns don’t just show up in a given state then someone has to force them into criminals’ hands.

That means the problem lies in there being a market in the first place.

You can’t regulate that into oblivion. You just can’t. So, instead, focus should go somewhere other than blaming the guns.

Then again, that seems to be the only way some people can function. After all, admitting guns aren’t the problem would mean so much of their political life is a lie. Cognitive dissonance is a mother.