Firearm laws are a lot like most other laws; essentially triumphs of hope over reality.  The hope is they will work! The reality, especially in the case of firearms laws is that they can’t work.

The idea is that they will reduce crime.  In fact they are only complied with by those who wish or need to comply with them (on pain of losing their firearm licence if they don’t, and get caught) and these people are NOT criminals.

So the real ‘target market’, potential criminal offenders, (NOT the licensed firearm owners), are neither affected by or even remotely influenced by firearm controls.  Their activities become curtailed only if they are detected, apprehended, tried, convicted and sentenced.  They may even go away for a while.  But they’ll be back as it is only in the rarest of cases are they reformed.

Meanwhile, the law abiding Licenced Firearms Owners, bedevilled by bureaucratic laws and pettifogging restrictions waste time, money and effort in order to try and comply.  True, these laws have some (minimal) public good in an economic sense – but only to the extent they generate work for loyal public servants. Remember, these laws are simply seeming to harass the already compliant.

The building of resentment at overly restrictive laws tends to invite non-compliance among even the law abiding which can lead to contempt for the law.  

Making the ‘law an ass’ is surely not the original intention of law makers, is it?