No Piers. You just don’t get it. No matter what laws are passed, the criminal scumbags and lunatics bent on slaughtering as many innocents as possible are never going to give up their guns. We tried Prohibition. We tried the War on Drugs. Both failed miserably. Do you know why? Its because when people want something, they’re going to get it whether its legal or not. Outlawing gambling and prostitution did not stop either of those businesses either.
But over and above that, our right to keep and bear arms is not just about something people want (guns). The express purpose of the 2nd Amendment is to act as a check on the tyrannical impulses of government. At the time of the Founding Fathers, the weapons available to private individuals were every bit as deadly as the weapons available to government. We have already allowed a huge gap to open up (for example, the bans on fully automatic weapons without a special permit).
Gun bans do not make us safer either from private actors or from Government.
Excellent post. Thanks for your input. It’s so true. People will get what they want.