Chicago politicians have long made it standard practice to blame the failure of their gun control laws on Indiana. They claim that if the state to their south had tougher gun control laws, they wouldn’t have the issues they do.

Of course, that’s nonsense.

A recent indictment of an alleged straw buyer illustrates this quite well.

A man is facing federal charges for allegedly buying 27 guns in Indiana on behalf of a Chicago resident.

From 2016 to 2019, 27-year-old Ricardo Larrea purchased 26 handguns and one shotgun for the Chicago resident, who identified which firearms he wanted an allegedly paid Larrea to buy them, according to an indictment unsealed Wednesday in U.S. District Court.

When Larrea bought the guns, he signed forms indicating that he was buying them for his own use and then gave the guns to the Chicago resident instead, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois.

The indictment is for one count of conspiracy to knowingly make false statements in connection with the acquisition of a firearm.

Now, my question for Chicago officials is just what gun control law would have prevented Larrea from supposedly buying 27 guns for someone else?

After all, a FOID can’t even prevent straw buys. In that case, someone with a FOID purchased 27 guns in a straw buy.

Yes, it’s weird that it was for the exact same number of firearms, but that’s not really relevant.

What is relevant is that a permit to purchase doesn’t stop such sales, so what would Chicago officials do to prevent things like straw buys? How can you do anything to curb those and at least look like you’re trying to adhere to the Second Amendment?

The problem is that you can’t. There’s literally no way to prevent it.

Oh, anti-gunners like to pay lip service to notions they claim will do so, but that includes stuff like permit-to-purchase laws, which we’ve already seen don’t really do anything.

Larrea is charged with buying guns to give to someone else. He wasn’t the first to do this, nor the last.

Between straw buys and smash-and-grab robberies, it’s pretty clear that criminals will find a way to get guns no matter what laws you put in place. They’re kind of in the business of breaking the law anyway. This is nothing new for them.

But certain mayors of certain Windy Cities can’t seem to get that.

Criminals are criminals. They engage in criminal behavior as a matter of course. They’re not going to suddenly just give up because you passed a new law. They’re going to find a way to get guns, even if it means getting someone else to buy them.

The thing is, Larrea just got caught. Countless others haven’t been and likely won’t be. They’ll keep getting away with it, at least until they’re arrested for some other felony.

So maybe it’s beyond time for some people to look past gun control and start looking at ways to stop people from becoming criminals in the first place. At least then everyone wins, including the would-be bad guy.