The state of Massachusetts is anything but friendly to gun owners. In fact, it's one of the most hostile states in the nation. At one time, it was probably the most hostile, but it's been eclipsed by states like California and New York. That wasn't because Massachusetts backed off on gun control, either. It's just those other states added more and added them faster. That was it.

And a lot of people figure that because Massachusetts has relatively low crime, the gun control laws work.

That's not what's happening, of course. Violent crime is a complex thing that doesn't just vanish because you made it a smidge harder to lawfully buy a gun. Criminals don't get guns through legal channels, after all.

For example, we have this guy in Massachusetts.

Police in Beverly made an arrest following a troubling threat, also seizing illegally owned guns and ammunition.

Matthew Scouras, 34, of Beverly, was arrested at his home on Essex Street and arraigned Monday on numerous firearm charges and threats to destroy a place of worship.

...

“The search located numerous items in a bedroom occupied by Scouras, including a cellular telephone, two desktop computers, a Nazi flag, a 9mm Glock “ghost gun” with no serial number, six boxes of ammunition, three large-capacity rifle magazines, 11 lower receivers for various rifles, other firearm parts, scopes, pistol frames, a jig used for drilling holes into polymer pistol handles, rifle stocks, and more than $70,000 in cash,” police said.

Scouras was charged with possession of a firearm without a license (12 counts), illegal possession of ammunition, possession of a large capacity feeding device, improper storage of a firearm, threats to destroy a place of worship, willful communication of a threat with a dangerous item (a firearm), and making of a firearm without a serial number.

The search came following online antisemitic threats.

Now, it seems Scouras wasn't a prohibited person, which means he could have gotten guns through lawful means. He didn't, though. He clearly obtained guns with no regard for the legality of any of them. That includes the lower receivers, which count as firearms. There's no mention of whether these were traditionally manufactured or whether he made them.

However, I will thank the media here for counting the Glock as a "ghost gun" when it's nothing of the sort. It's a traditionally manufactured firearm, made by Glock, with the serial number removed. It's not what people think of as "ghost guns."

Regardless, there was a lot going on with Scouras here.

And he wasn't deterred by the laws in place in the state. 

That's because whatever other shady stuff he was into--most of us don't keep $70,000 lying around the house unless we're into shady stuff if we're being honest--tended to go hand-in-hand with getting guns illegally. That's what criminals do.

That's also why gun control is never going to work. People who want guns will get guns and there's absolutely nothing any law can do to stop the truly dedicated.

Scouras got a pile of guns and broke just about every gun control law on the books in Massachusetts. You're deluded if you think he's somehow the anomaly and that gun control somehow keeps the rest of the alleged criminals disarmed.