Why More Gun Control Laws Will Not Produce More Positive Results
Our Gun Control Laws Are Already Producing The Maximum Positive Effect Possible, More Laws Aimed At Law Abiding Buyers Will Not Help – And Will Actually Hurt!
The law of diminishing returns applies to almost everything. Taking twice as much medication will not always produce twice the effect. Doubling the number of employees will not always result in twice as much production or sales. In fact, in both examples, there is a point at which adding more medication or employees will not produce any increase at all. The medication increase may fail because the body can only be stimulated to a certain point at which it reaches the maximum possible effect. Increasing the number of employees will only increase production as long as there is space and equipment for the additional employees to work. The law of diminishing returns not only says that returns will reduce as the “solution” is increased – it says that at a certain point, increasing what was a positive action in the beginning will produce no effect at all or even make things worse.
We have reached that point with gun control laws in the United States. The reason is simple: The most that regulation of the legal market in guns can do is push criminals into the illegal market and we are already at this point. Consider this study done by the US Department of Justice and released in January 2019:
When a criminal, or an otherwise law abiding citizen, is unable to obtain a gun through legal channels, they face a choice: Decide not to buy a gun, or find a black market dealer or other illegal source. That’s why regulation of the legal gun market reaches a point where more laws will produce no more effect.
90% of criminals firearms are already coming from illegal sources. Criminals are not walking into licensed gun dealers and walking out with guns. The largest source for criminals is black market dealers. The black market exists in nearly every country on earth – including countless nations where there is no way for a law abiding person to own a gun. Jamaica has very strict gun laws – and a massive gun violence problem, fueled by a black market. Mexico has strict gun laws and one gun shop for the entire country, and a huge black market selling guns from all over the world. Terrorists in Europe have no trouble obtaining AK47s. Even the UK, where criminals have typically avoided guns, is seeing an increasing black market develop.
Yet, the Biden administration is ignoring the source of 90% of criminals guns to focus upon a source that accounts for 2% of them: Private sales. What will the criminals who bought guns from private individuals do if this source is eliminated? They will turn to black market dealers – and this action will have no effect. Given the robust black market already established here in the US, a total ban on legal ownership of firearms would not only be unconstitutional – it would be completely ineffective.
So, what would help? Well, we could try actually enforcing our gun laws against criminals. 15% of criminal’s firearms are coming from straw purchases in which someone lies on the required form and buys a gun for a criminal. This involves two felonies punishable by up to ten years per offense – yet jail time is almost unheard of. Being an illegal dealer involves countless felonies that could result in virtual life sentences. Many criminals lend guns to other criminals – this also can result in long prison terms. Instead of passing new gun laws aimed at burdening law abiding gun owners, we need to increase enforcement of our current laws.
Finally, passing more laws aimed at law abiding gun owners will actually make things worse be reducing the number of agents available to enforce federal gun laws. The greatest example this was the ammunition controls originally included in the Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA68). Ammunition could only be sold by licensed dealers. Buyers had to produce identification and every round sold had to be tracked. After 16 years experience with this law, both the FBI and ATF testified that the law was worse than useless. They could not find an example of a single crime solved with the assistance of the records – and ATF testified that auditing these records took agents away from enforcement efforts aimed at criminals. Congress decided to repeal the ammunition provisions of GCA68.
Ironically, restoring ammunition controls is one of the goals of gun control groups – along with many other burdensome regulations aimed at the law abiding. Every one of those regulations will take ATF agents away from criminal enforcement efforts – they will makes things worse, not better.
The law of diminishing returns is real and gun laws are not exempt from it.
Rev. R. Vincent Warde
3-10-2021