Human trafficking has gotten a lot of headlines lately. That’s probably a good thing, because even if it’s not what a lot of people think, it’s still a horrific thing that we need to shut down. Gun trafficking is nothing compared to this stain on humanity, for example.

These are people who take away someone’s basic freedom and try to turn them into a commodity. It’s hard to think of a lot of things even close to being as vile.

Finding out people like this also have guns shouldn’t be shocking. After all, this is a multi-billion dollar criminal industry. When that much money is involved, someone’s going to have a gun handy. If it helps them kidnap people for their sick business, so much the better from their perspective.

And a recent bust found guns and drugs among the four bottom-feeders arrested.

One day after Michigan State Police announced a large-scale suspected human trafficking bust involving 18 people, four men were arrested for sex trafficking and drug sales.

The human trafficking operation spanned across three houses in Detroit according to police. First Lt. Mike Shaw says eight other people were detained, interviewed and found to be uninvolved.

“These women were beaten, held against their will, made to take narcotics,” Shaw said. “Made to prostitute themselves by these pimps out there.”

Six victims were interviewed, with one needing medical assistance. Twelve others were also interviewed – afterward, the four suspects were arrested. Eight other people were released.

Items seized during the investigation included cocaine, cell phones and ammunition. Investigators also found a 105mm projectile.

We don’t know how many guns or what kinds, but the fact that they were there isn’t shocking. Nor should anyone be shocked to find out that the guns were either stolen or illegally modified in some way. After all, these are “people” who would sell other people.

There are terrible people in this world. We’ve always known that. However, these are among the worst out there, challenged only by other sick dirtballs whose activities often overlap with these individuals.

With that in mind, let’s understand that these are the kind of people who have no respect for anyone or anything. They are monsters, the real monsters that lurk under our beds. They’re the reason many of us own guns in the first place. They take advantage of people, hurt them, sell them, and they’re not generally looking for volunteers.

So we have guns.

Unfortunately, they often do too. The difference is, if and when they’re caught, those guns are held against them because of their other vile actions. Ours aren’t, at least in the eyes of the law. Most of the time, anyway.

If we can’t keep human traffickers from getting guns, then maybe it’s time to accept that gun control won’t have the actions many like to delude themselves into believing. You’re not going to stop bad people from doing bad things just because you made one part of their process illegal. If that would have worked, you wouldn’t need gun control in the first place. The laws against murder and robbery would be sufficient.

They’re not, nor are the laws against human trafficking, unfortunately.