It’s pretty shocking sometimes to realize how many firearms are seized by law enforcement in areas in which guns aren’t supposed to be.
Take gun-free zones, for example. The term “gun-free zone” sounds like a description of the physical space. It sounds like it is an area in which there are no guns at all.
But the fact of the matter is that designating an area as a gun-free zone doesn’t magically prevent firearms from being brought there.
Which is exactly why so many mass shooters target gun-free zones for their rampages. Because legal gun owners won’t typically bring their firearms into a gun-free zone (because they’re law abiding citizens, after all), only the criminal has a gun there until law enforcement shows up.
We see the same thing in larger areas in which gun control laws have been implemented. If those laws worked, then no one would be able to have a gun there.
Yet, law enforcement keeps finding guns there for them to seize. Take a recent incident in Washington, D.C., for example. Kimberly Hayek writes,
Authorities recovered 28 firearms, 2.4 kilograms of crack cocaine, one kilogram of powder cocaine, 29 grams of fentanyl, and 12 pounds of marijuana from locations connected to the defendants and their associates. One defendant, Kivarrie Greene, faces an additional charge of unlawful possession of firearms.
FBI Assistant Director in Charge Darren B. Cox of the Washington Field Office said the operation targeted what he described as a violent group that operated across Southeast D.C. and Prince George’s County.
Well, that’s odd. D.C. has some of the strictest gun control in the country. So, how did these accused criminals get that many guns, along with the illegal drugs, into a city that has made both the guns and the drugs illegal?
That shouldn’t be possible, should it?
And the answer is that laws aren’t magic. They can’t force compliance.
Which is exactly why gun control fails every time.
