Gun Restrictions Do Not Work

There's been another mass shooting in Australia. The investigation is ongoing so I have no desire to focus on the minutia currently being reported. Much of it will likely change as the investigation progresses. What I want to focus on is that, despite promises made by Australian politicians and gun grabbers, gun restrictions failed once again. Australia already has strict restrictions on gun ownership. Australian law explicitly states that gun ownership is a privilege. Owning a gun requires a license and getting the license requires an applicant to provide a "genuine reason" that cannot be self-defense. If the government decides to bestow you with the privilege of a license, you must renew it every set number of years (which varies slightly depending on region).

Despite these already stringent restrictions, the Australian government has promised even more restriction in response to the most recent mass shooting. Even I was a bit surprised by this announcement since I can't imaging what other restrictions they can put in place. (That was sarcasm. I wasn't even slightly surprised.) To use the phrase commonly misattributed to Einstein, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result."

Advocates for restricting gun ownership have long promised that doing so would end gun violence. When the policies they advocate are passed into law, their promise goes unfulfilled. Their response is that gun ownership wasn't restricted enough and demand even more restrictions. When those are passed into law, their promise still goes unfulfilled. It's an endless cycle of innocent gun owners being punished without the promised end being reached. Australia is a prime example of this point. Australian gun owners have been ruthlessly bludgeoned by their politicians and yet mass shootings continue to happen there. Punishing them further won't end gun violent in that country.

Advocates for restricting gun ownership always find a boogeyman to blame for the failure of their policies. A common one here in the United States is that state level gun restrictions fail because people smuggle guns from neighboring states that have fewer restrictions. This shouldn't be an issue in Australia since the entire country has strict restrictions and is surrounded by an ocean. Their only noteworthy neighbor has arguably stricter restrictions. A boogeyman that has become trend in the last few years is 3D printers. This boogeyman at least relates to the real reason gun restrictions don't work.

The reason gun restrictions will never work is because guns are mechanically simple devices. Anybody can build a viable gun from parts found in a hardware store as Tetsuya Yamagami demonstrated. Restrictions against gun ownership only work against those who desire to remain within the law. People who desire to commit acts of violence have no concern about remaining within the law so gun restrictions don't work against them. They will acquire the means to commit violence one way or another. The only outcome of gun restrictions is that the law abiding are made defenseless against the lawless.