We keep being told that if we enact just enough gun control laws, criminals won’t be able to get guns.

That seems really naive to me and is usually indicative of someone who doesn’t understand how criminals get guns in the first place. Most of them either steal guns from law-abiding citizens or they get a gun from someone else who stole it. In other words, most guns in criminal hands are stolen.

But it’s not the only way.

Yes, some come from gun stores.

“Aha!” the anti-gunner says. “I knew it!”

Hold your horses, Skippy. The gun dealer isn’t selling them to criminals knowingly. What happens is the crook gets a friend or family member with a clean criminal record to go in and buy guns. Sometimes, these folks make an entire side hustle out of it.

And it’s already illegal, as this guy from Indianapolis can now attest.

A 26-year-old Indianapolis man has been sentenced to federal prison after he straw purchased 36 guns.

According to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana, 26-year-old Kayvonn Bailey pleaded guilty to making a false statement to a licensed firearms importer. Bailey was sentenced to two years in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release after the guilty plea.

The release said that in September 2022, Bailey bought a Smith and Wesson .40 caliber pistol from a federally licensed firearms dealer in Beech Grove. When Bailey bought the firearm, he falsely stated that he was the actual buyer of the gun, when in fact he bought it on behalf of another person.

This wasn’t Bailey’s only sin, apparently, but it’s the one that landed him on the DOJ’s radar.

He admits to 36 straw buys. The actual number may be much higher.

Yet this behavior is illegal and has been for quite some time. You cannot do this. Even the Form 4473 asks if you’re buying it for yourself or someone else. It’s pretty clear that this is illegal and we all know it.

And yet, three dozen people were illegally armed by this one person.

See, no matter what laws you come up with, someone is going to figure out a way around them. It’s usually not all that hard, really. Criminals aren’t necessarily the smartest people in the world, but there are enough of them that someone will figure a way around the law and pass that along to their buddies. When they try it and see that it works, they pass it along too.

It’s like a criminal viral hack or something.

You’re never going to disarm criminals through legislation. The only ones really impacted are the law-abiding citizens.

Whether it’s straw buys or stolen guns or something else, the criminal will get firearms no matter what. It’s time for lawmakers to come to realize this and to focus on strategies that might actually work. Then our rights can be left alone while we deal with violent crime. A number of places are doing it quite well without new gun control laws. That’s a roadmap that can be followed throughout the nation.