"Gun control works!"

How many times have you been told that? Now, let's acknowledge that a lot of the studies out there claim it does, but let's also acknowledge that those studies are worthless and we know why they're worthless.

Even without that, we know that it's not really true. Why? Because bad people keep getting guns.

Time and time again, bad actors gain access to firearms, share access to firearms with others, and generally ignore all the laws that folks like you and I are expected to follow.

Allegedly, people like Mergam Ademi from Syracuse, New York.

Ademi stands accused of selling five guns and what is described as "an aftermarket trigger device." He got the attention of the ATF back in December and now they apparently figured they had enough evidence to make an arrest.

There was no mention of his dog being shot.

Regardless, it sounds like criminals in Syracuse had a source for guns, even if it wasn't actually Ademi. In truth, they probably have a lot of sources for firearms. 

That's because the gun laws of New York don't actually stop criminals. The best-case scenario is that the laws in question give them something to charge bad actors with. Unfortunately, the laws there do a lot more than just allow the punishment of criminals. They also restrict the decent, law-abiding citizens there.

Time and time again, we've written about arrests in anti-gun states, arrests where someone got guns and sold them illegally. Universal background checks didn't stop these illegal transactions, nor would they. They're illegal gun transfers. I've never heard of a criminal wanting to conduct a background check.

I mean, that would be like your neighborhood drug dealer expecting you to bring a prescription from your doctor. It's just not going to happen.

Gun laws cannot stop the illegal gun trade.

What they can do, however, is make it far more difficult for non-criminals to defend themselves.

Take the assault weapon ban under consideration in Colorado, for example. That proposal is so extensive it'll relegate people in the state to basically 19th-century gun technology as pretty much all magazine-fed semi-automatic guns with a pistol grip--which includes every semi-automatic handgun on the market--will be banned if it passes.

Now, do you expect the criminals out there to simply switch to using revolvers and double-barreled shotguns?

Or do you think that someone will obtain semi-automatic handguns from somewhere and then sell them, much like how Ademi is accused of selling firearms in Syracuse?

There is only one correct answer, and that would be that yes, that's precisely what will happen.

And Ademi isn't a unique case. We've seen countless examples over the years and there are countless more that never made it on our radar. If anything, the quest to disarm criminals has done nothing but create business opportunities for those willing to provide firearms to that "community."

Meanwhile, getting a gun in New York isn't exactly the easiest thing in the world for the law-abiding. They must jump through hoops, be treated like criminals themselves, all so they can have the means to defend themselves while people like Ademi (allegedly) provides guns to anyone with the money.