I just got in an argument on the Huffington post site with an anti-gunner. This is how it went:
Guns should be illegal.
Me: “Because that has worked so well with drugs.”
Banner: "People are cooking drugs in their home kitchens. Know anyone
manufacturing guns? If they would legalize drugs they could take the
money out of it, regulate it, tax it and diminish the criminal element
connected to it. Worked with alcohol. Guns are different."
Few people make their own guns because guns are legal, and it is cheaper in terms of knowledge and cash to buy it commercially. The same argument you use for drugs. If people want something and are willing to pay for it, they will get it because someone will provide it. Make a product illegal and the only people who will get that product are, by definition, criminals. How are guns different from any other product?
Making guns illegal would simply result in a black market of guns.
As to your comment about no one manufacturing guns: Here is a 3D printable one, and here is a weapons factory in Pakistan where everything from antiaircraft guns, to machine guns, to pen guns are made by hand.
I wonder if they could handle the fact that there's a whole little community of folks who build ARs from hunks of aluminum here in the states?
ReplyDeleteAll you need is a drill press. Unless you've got much steadier hands than I do, and can do it free hand.