Member of the gun control lobby will argue that taking away guns from law abiding citizens will somehow stop criminals from using guns to commit crimes. This is simply untrue, and I’ve addressed the facts that criminals ignore gun control laws, which only serve to leave law abiding citizens defenseless. I’ve also addressed the fact that criminals will commit crimes, with or without guns.
Gun control laws could, however, result in more criminals with machine guns. Allow me to explain:
Currently, criminals who want a gun will usually steal one
Criminals in the United States tend to steal a gun (or buy a stolen gun) in order to get one. That is because convicted felons are prohibited by federal law from possessing firearms, which means that they can’t just walk into their local gun store and pass a background check. Various state laws also prohibit domestic abusers and those under orders of protection from owning or buying a gun. Whether they steal guns from police officers, police evidence rooms, or other sources, criminals will get guns. Regardless of how they get a gun, it tends to be a semi-automatic gun, since fully automatic machine guns are relatively rare in the United States.
Stricter gun control laws mean criminals will smuggle guns into the country just as they smuggle in drugs
As discussed above, criminals in the United States tend to get their guns by stealing them. Criminals are currently able to satisfy their need for guns from almost entirely domestic sources. However, were criminals unable to find enough guns in the United States, it is highly unlikely that they would just give up crime and become law abiding citizens. Instead, they would smuggle guns into the country, just as they smuggle in drugs and other contraband.
Criminals would then smuggle in machine guns, such as the AK-47
To fill their need for guns, criminals would turn to the same smugglers who bring in drugs. But instead of brining in the semi-automatic guns that we are used to hearing about criminals having, these smugglers would bring in machine guns. This is because while very few guns in the United States are fully automatic machine guns, the guns in many South American countries are fully automatic machine guns, such as AK-47s and AK-74s. These machine guns are what will be smuggled in to the United States, right along side the many tons of illegal drugs that are smuggled in each year. The result would be criminals armed with even more powerful weapons, at the same time that the law abiding citizens are disarmed.
Most guns use compressed gas confined by the barrel to propel the bullet up to high speed, though devices operating in other ways are sometimes called guns. In guns that are firearms the high pressure gas is generated by combustion, usually of gun powder.