Gun control sold as necessary to stop criminals from getting guns is generally pretty stupid. After all, we know that criminals aren’t following gun laws as it is, so one more gun law isn’t really going to do much to stop them.
What they generally do is make things more difficult for the law-abiding gun owner or gun buyer. I might want to buy my buddy’s double-barrelled shotgun, but universal background checks mean I can’t do it on a Sunday morning when it comes up, but have to arrange a time and place to meet up with a gun store to make it happen.
And that’s the best-case scenario.
But what happens when a gun control proposal is so stupid, it stands to destroy entire non-gun hobbies for large swaths of people?
That’s what Prince Georges County in Maryland is on the brink of doing.
Ghost guns — untraceable firearms usually put together by someone using unassembled or homemade components — are already illegal in Maryland.
Nonetheless, they’ve been used in some high profile crimes in Prince George’s County in recent years, including several that involve juveniles.
Now, the Prince George’s County Council wants to give prosecutors a new tool that will go after those who help juveniles get their hands on one.
A new bill written by Council member Krystal Oriadha would make it illegal to give a juvenile such a weapon, including the technology or components that can be used to make one.
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It’s an idea she hopes state lawmakers in Annapolis will replicate statewide next year.
So it’s not just the weapons, but the technology or components.
Now, “components” I could see, so long as you’re talking gun parts themselves. I don’t agree with it, obviously, but I can at least see the rationale. Of course, as it’s already illegal to give a juvenile a firearm in the first place for anything other than something like hunting or target shooting, it seems like something that’s unlikely to actually do much.
But the issue is making it illegal to give a juvenile the technology to make sure a weapon.
That would include things like 3D printers and computers, things that are used by juveniles all the time. I mean, my son’s high school had 3D printers for the engineering classes he took. Under this law, one could argue that the school would be in violation of the law.
3D printers are in public libraries as well. Would they have to be removed simply because the technology would allow someone to make a firearm?
Let’s also understand that a lot of kids do have 3D printers, not to make illegal firearms, but to make things like miniatures for their Dungeons & Dragons game or to play with entrepreneurship by making products they can sell, among the whole litany of legitimate and lawful uses for 3D printers in the hands of a juvenile.
And yes, the computer I’m using to write this would qualify as technology that could be used to make a gun. After all, you’ve got to download the files onto something, right?
Honestly, while most gun control is poorly thought out, this one reaches a whole new level. It’s bad that anyone is considering it, but that she wants this to be passed by the state legislature as well? That’s absolutely insane.
