Assuming the intended effect is to reduce murder rates, they don’t work. Surprisingly, it seems to have the opposite effect.
I can’t say for sure why it works out that way, but it does.
Here is my best guess (take it with a grain of salt): If you look at it in the context of prohibition or the war on drugs, it makes sense. Banning something doesn’t necessarily prevent it from being produced or used. It does create a large black market for the product though. The black markets can be more efficient than legal markets. It’s easier to buy a $50 (offhand price I heard a cop mention once) handgun from Shady Joe than buying a retail price handgun from a store with legal checks. A monopoly could only help Shady Joe’s business… much like it’s easy to buy drugs in the US, despite a total ban… easier, in fact, than going to a grocery store if you know a dealer. Another factor might be that people feel ‘safer’ committing a crime with an unregistered firearm under the expectation it will be harder to trace back to them, and when all firearms are now unregistered, that barrier drops.
I think it’s foolish to assume that destroying our gun industry with an outright ban would reduce gun ownership. For one, you still have all the existing guns already sold (assuming ‘we aren’t going to take your guns’ isn’t a lie). Secondly, anyone with a CNC mill, a lathe, and a bit of training can make a decent gun… and availability of designs and computer controls means you don’t even need much training. Crappier guns can be made with far less. Since someone is now in the business of making illegal guns, the step up from semi-automatic to fully automatic is trivial. The tools and materials are legal to own, and easy to explain having (unlike a meth lab). The tools are getting more advanced and cheaper now thanks to impressive advances in automation. BB even has a related article running right now. A more interesting thing to see are videos about Pakistan gun markets (do search that if you’re curious) … entire villages dedicated to producing (by hand) and selling firearms, using tools you could find in any machine shop and many ‘makers’ garages. The one I saw had a man producing a knock-off handgun from a Chinese design and would stamp the guns ‘Made as China’… not ‘Made in China’. It was a clever joke about copying the Chinese design and a mark of pride. Practically anyone could learn, and if you give the criminal market a monopoly, they will.
