The Massachusetts House passed a controversial gun control bill after pulling some sneaky stuff to do so. Not the way you push a gun control bill you just know will do good for your state.

The truth of the matter is that some people never cared about that. They don’t like guns and they don’t want you to have them. In Massachusetts, there are a lot more of them than there are in places like Texas or Missouri.

But they’re not universal.

It seems the editorial board at the Boston Herald isn’t all that amused, either.

When it comes to preventing crime and keeping communities safe, the new gun bill passed by the Massachusetts House of Representatives is shooting blanks.

As the Herald reported, the bill expands a list of banned firearms, adding most popular AR-15 styles to a list of “assault style weapons.” It would also require licensed concealed carry holders to secure permission before entering another’s home with a firearm and require additional training for license holders, among other points.

For law-abiding gun owners, it adds layers of compliance on top of the state’s already-strict firearms regulations.

For criminals, it means nothing.

…

“These cases also highlight the need for us as a society to recognize the concentration of guns among a core group of individuals — in this case, two repeat offenders — and to find ways to break the cycle, which so often leads to violence and tragedy,” Hayden said.

He noted the gun-related arrests were “cases where prior convictions and prior incarcerations have apparently done little to dissuade these individuals from repeating the offenses.”

That’s the problem – those who follow pre-existing gun laws will follow new ones. Those who don’t follow the law at all won’t start.

Exactly.

Over and over again, we see gun control laws passed that are ostensibly intended to keep bad actors from getting guns and doing bad things. Massachusetts doesn’t have a monopoly on that particular bit of insanity, though they’ve got more than their fair share.

Yet despite all these laws, the criminals continue to get guns and to use guns, hurting innocent people and causing all kinds of problems.

The truth of the matter is that Massachusetts isn’t going to stop criminals with this bill. They’ll simply inhibit law-abiding, responsible citizens who represent no threat at all to the people of that state. The only people impacted will be the good guys who could be trusted with a rocket launcher and wouldn’t try to hurt a soul.

Meanwhile, the criminals will continue to do as they’ve done. They’ll hurt innocent people, rob them, and then pretend they’re the victims.

What Massachusetts needs is an approach that gives people a choice of either a long time in prison or walking the straight and narrow path. Give them incentives to choose correctly and deterrence from choosing poorly and that will do more than banning any kind of guns.

Especially as criminals aren’t known for using AR-15s for the most part.

But hey, that’s assuming Massachusetts officials don’t know all of this. I can’t make that assumption.