Posted on 01/21/2014 7:34:55 PM PST by marktwain
John R. Lott Jr.
is president of the Crime Prevention Research Center and the author of "More Guns, Less Crime"
The new year has brought yet more gun-control regulations. President Obama announced new executive orders on background checks. Connecticut citizens stood in long lines to register their guns, and, next door in New York City, registration lists are used to confiscate them.
While the research by criminologists and economists keeps showing that gun control doesn't work, technological advances and practical problems mean the laws are increasingly likely only to disarm the law-abiding.
In the era of 3D printing, you won't be able to ban guns and it will be even more difficult to stop unapproved people from obtaining them. A part metal/part plastic gun printed from a 3D printer will be completely indistinguishable from a traditionally made gun, even down to whatever serial number you want.
3D printers have consequences for the gun-control laws Obama and other Democrats are pushing. If AR-15s are banned, anyone could borrow a 3D printer and make one. If magazines holding more than 10 rounds are banned, and you don't have access to a very simple set of tools, print one off.
Can the government stop 3D-printed guns? Unfortunately, no. Even if the government registered every printer, criminals could simply steal one. How about requiring prior government permission for every item printed? That seems unenforceable, especially since printers will soon become ubiquitous.
Software is also impossible to control. When Cody Wilson, the 25-year-old founder of Defense Distributed, announced his design of a virtually all-plastic gun in May, the software blueprint from his website was quickly downloaded around the world. In just two days, 100,000 downloads were made, with most coming from Spain, followed by the United States and heavily regulated Brazil and Germany.
(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...
Who will of course completely ignore those facts in their rush to utopia.
Before pronouncing on whether gun control works or does not one should consider the goals of those who would control/confiscate the guns. Just maybe it is not important to them that they will leave the criminal element armed and emboldened. Or maybe that is even part of the goal. The Communists in the USSR considered the criminal class to be social allies of the Communists because they helped keep the wisps of middle class people and the dissidents off balance. A criminal class armed with guns would certainly have that effect on a disarmed citizenry.
There are only 2 ways to decrease violent crime and niether are gun control related.
1. Arm citizens
2. Excercise criminal control
#1 - People ignoring them.
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