Your Roof Is Leaking
It’s raining cats and dogs outside, and the roof of the building you’re in suddenly springs a leak. In the corner there’s a pile of old buckets. You grab one and place it under the leak – problem solved. But then there’s another leak and another and another and another. More leaks than you have buckets. Now you could throw up your hands and say, “To hell with it, it’s going to rain no matter what” or you could try to go outside in the storm and totally replace the roof – but frankly, that’s a pretty big job and you’re not sure you’re up to it. So what do you do?
You study those leaks. Where are they forming and which ones would be the easiest to plug with the materials you have at hand? Given the resources at your disposal, which leaks make sense to fix first, and which ones can wait? So you go about plugging leaks in the roof. After a while, you realize that you now have fewer leaks than you have buckets, and until a permanent fix is available, you’ve at least stopped the worst of it, and the floor is no longer getting soaked through.
That’s what we’re talking about with gun control. The opposition says, “Oh this legislation or that legislation won’t solve the problem,” and they’re right. But it’s going to solve part of the problem. Criminal background checks plug one of those leaks in the roof. Ending the sales of firearms over the internet and at gun shows plugs another leak. Stiff penalties for straw man purchasers fixes yet another one. The point is not to ban the sales of firearms to everyone, but to make it increasingly difficult for prohibited persons from making a sale out in the open.
When we plug most of those leaks in the system, then we have enough manpower in the BATF to adequately monitor the gun trade. We also make it easier for local law enforcement to disrupt the flow of illegal firearms. The result? The street value of a Glock goes through the roof (says noted gang banger Adam Smith) because while the demand may be high, the supply is getting exceedingly small. And those small-time hoodlums who can currently purchase a firearm easier than they can purchase a six-pack? Most will no longer have the resources to acquire a gun, which won’t turn them into law-abiding citizens – they’ll still be small-time hoodlums, but at least they’ll be unarmed.
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