Dancing Giant Inn - Firearms & Marksmanship - The Futility of Gun Control

The Futility of Gun Control

Gun-control legislation is ultimately an exercise in futility. The innocuous-looking piece of steel below is the only part of a firearm that cannot be otherwise described as a tube, rod, spring, box, lever, screw, or pin. I needed a federal license, a background check, and a recognized association membership to purchase just this one inert component of an antique rifle.

This receiver for an M1, Garand, semi-automatic rifle is nothing more than a piece of machined steel.

Despite their popular mystique, firearms are a remarkably simple technology. A limited understanding of chemistry, physics, and engineering was all that was required for them to be invented over 700 years ago. Even today, anyone with a few machine tools and a little know-how could easily manufacture modern firearms in his own home. In fact, cottage gunsmiths in Afghanistan and Pakistan do just that, making a wide variety of weapons by hand with only simple tools.

Firearms are not a technology that can be easily controlled without resorting to the draconian measures antithetical to our supposedly enlightened, democratic ideals. No amount of legislation will stop a criminal intent on robbery, rape, or murder from perpetrating his offense with a gun. Why should a lawbreaker worry about using an illegal weapon?

The only thing that gun-control laws can do is disarm law-abiding citizens, who are the people least likely to misuse or abuse firearms in the first place.

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by M. D. Van Norman.

“Gun control is bullshit.”