Lawmakers in Illinois are fans of restricting guns. They’re apparently of the belief that if you restrict gun access for law-abiding citizens then you restrict it for bad guys as well. Of course, Chicago is a pretty good testimony to just how poorly that works in practice, but they keep on believing this.

But if that worked, then fully-automatic weapons would never end up in criminal hands, right? I mean, these are the most tightly controlled firearms in the country. Most of us can’t even afford a full-auto because of the laws on the books. Not lawfully anyway.

Which, of course, means that criminals will never get their hands on such weapons, either. Especially in a place with so many other gun control laws on the books like Illinois.

Huh. Will you look at this.

Three people have been accused of having loaded machine guns and drugs in the parking lot of a business in Naperville.

DuPage County Judge Joshua Dieden denied pretrial release Monday for Demarveus Butler, 19, of the 200 block of Fulton Street in Michigan City, Indiana; Terrance Reed, 27, of the 3500 block of West Adams Street in Chicago; and Rubin Tart, 24, of the 3700 block of 16th Place, Country Club Hills.

Butler is charged with possession of a loaded machine gun and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon.

Reed is charged with being an armed habitual criminal, armed violence, possession of a stolen motor vehicle and unlawful use of a weapon by a felon.

Tart is charged with possession of a loaded machine gun, armed violence, unlawful use of a weapon by a felon and possession of a controlled substance.

Now, we need to understand that these “machine guns” were simply Glocks with full-auto switches installed on them as opposed to something like a M-240 or anything.

Yet, again, these are tightly restricted by law. Moreover, absolutely none of these are legal under the 1986 machine gun ban.

Illinois has a history of pretending that its gun problems are really because of Indiana, yet these switches aren’t legal in any state in the nation and are banned under federal law. Despite that, criminals keep finding ways to get their grubby little paws on them.

Funny how that shakes out, isn’t it?

Meanwhile, you or I have to pony up enough money to buy a car just to get your hands on something you can legally own. These guys buy their switches off of some Chinese website and have them shipped to their homes.

And if one of these guys comes after you and yours for some reason, it’s going to be difficult for any of us to match that rate of fire, which puts the good guys at a disadvantage.

That’s what anti-gunners in places like Illinois still can’t seem to grok. You might make life a tad more difficult for criminals if you’re fortunate, but you’re going to make it much more difficult for the good guy who wants to protect himself and his family.

Unfortunately, I don’t see Illinois anti-gunners coming to understand that anytime soon.