A lot of governors of anti-gun states blame their own criminals getting firearms on neighboring states that respect gun rights. They argue that if these states had similar laws--if all states had them, more specifically--the problem wouldn't exist.
Well, if that's true, then a state like California wouldn't have people getting drugs or explosives, now would they?
After all, drugs other than marijuana are illegal throughout the nation. Explosives are tightly controlled, much like machine guns, and thus aren't exactly available at the local curb store.
Unfortunately.
But is that how it works? Oh no, as a recent arrest in the Golden State made abundantly clear.
According to the San Bruno Police Department, officers along with the county’s Narcotics Task Force, Vehicle Theft Task Force and Gang Intelligence Unit served a warrant at a home on Heather Lane on March 31. A man who lived at the home, identified as 32-year-old Ryan J. Beardsley, was taken into custody without incident.
Police said a search of a home yielded a “significant quantity” of methamphetamine, along with packaging materials scales and drug paraphernalia.
Along with the drugs, investigators located an AR-15 “ghost gun” without a serial number, along with two rifles, a revolver, several high-capacity magazines and ammunition. According to police, Beardsley is a convicted felon, prohibited from owning firearms.
Suspected explosive materials and evidence showing the intent to manufacture improvised explosive devices was found, police said, which led to the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office Bomb Squad to respond. The materials were recovered safely.
They also found a stolen ATV and body armor.
Now, of the things found in this home, none are legal in California, and only the "ghost gun" is technically legal in neighboring states, though they're not lawful to be manufactured and sold to anyone.
On every level, laws were broken, including federal laws that apply everywhere in the United States and its territories. Nothing about this fits the claims many make about the problem really being people in other states. It's almost like those who make the claims are just trying to blame others for their own failures.
Weird, right? Why would anti-gunners do that when gun control works so well?
Maybe because they're full of it, they know it, but they can't acknowledge that what they said would work didn't work, so they have to foist the blame on others in hopes of keeping their jobs?
Nah, that couldn't be it. When as a politician ever shown it was more about their power than what's right and wrong, other than just about every time they open their mouths?
Look, we can argue until we're blue in the face about whether or not guns are the problem. If you're reading this one, you're likely in the camp that doesn't by that argument at all.
What we need to acknowledge as a society is that criminals aren't going to follow the law, and when those laws interfere with a constitutional right, they're inherently wrong and should be repealed immediately. Some might be willing to entertain them if they worked--not me, and not you, but some will argue just that, and I think you know that--but they don't.
If we can't keep explosives and drugs out of criminal hands, then what hope do we have of guns, when there are hundreds of millions in circulation and the 30 that get turned in at the next "buyback" won't make a dent in them?
Bad people do bad things, and they get things they're not supposed to have. They're not limited by laws because they choose to ignore them and do stuff anyway. The laws are just hurdles to clear, not barriers to block them.
It's just the rest of us who keep getting screwed over.
